I thought one of the best parts about this week's episode was trying to figure out what Jerry was about to say and couldn't 'cause he was trying to be PC. I'm in complete agreement with many posters--this was vintage Seinfeld--about nothing and hilarious. :)
Michael
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In article , [email] (Michael Shore) writes...
I loved the whole ethnic part of the show too. It was so realistic! I have a good story to relate. Since I live in the province of Quebec, most salespeople speak French, and all sales- people address customers by saying "Bonjour," meaning "Hello." Anyways, today, I was shopping for some sweatpants. I walked into a store and there was a black man standing near the cash counter. For a moment, I had forgotten how to say the word "sweat" in French, so this is what I said: "Bonjour, est-ce-que-vous avez des pantalons a sweat?" The black man looked at me and said, "What!" I replied, "Oh, do you sell sweatpants?" At this point we both laughed, and here is where the ethnicity part comes in: He then asked me, "Why, do I look French?" My reply to that ridiculously stupid statement was: "Well, you never know nowadays." Thinking back to this incident, I know what I wanted to really say to him, but I just didn't have the guts because of PC. I wanted to say this: "So if you're a black man, I should assume that your first language is NOT French?" But of course that would have offended him. I realize that there are many blacks in Quebec whose first language happens to be French. Had I addressed him in English and he was a Francophone, I'll bet he would have said to me in French: "What, I look English, just 'cause I'm black?"
YOU CAN'T WIN WITH ETHNICITY. It seems that for almost anything you say these days, somebody will get offended! That's the reason why that show was hilarious! I laughed my head off when Jerry asked a Chinese man for directions to a Chinese restaurant!
This part I found unrealistic. I'm not Chinese and I don't claim to speak for them, but I have gotten to know several Chinese students this last semester and I really can't imagine any of them reacting like that. In fact, I'm sure that they would have reacted quite nicely, even if he *had* asked them because they were Chinese.
Gail
Gail,
I don't think the show meant to put forward any hypothesis regarding the sensitivity of any person about his/her ethnic background. In this context, I would have to disagree with you on the subject of the situation being unrealistic.
It was just another absurdly funny situation...here's Jerry dating someone who thinks he is going out of his way to be offensive to her ethnic background, and there's Jerry going and pissing off the postman with an alleged ethnic faux pas.
People are different. If you feel you can never expect a certain person of a certain ethnicity/color/caste/creed/sex to behave in a certain way, (good or bad) you are as guilty of stereotyping as the next person :-)
Peace!
Not chinese, but from a few thousand miles south of Tibet ;-) **sridhar**
[email] (Gail Gurman) writes:
But were they *Americans* of Chinese heritage? Raised here? Recent immigrants are often more polite.
More to the point: were they New Yorkers? That'd explain a fair amount of rudeness.
BTW, am I the only one who thought of the letter carrier's ballistic response as a joke not only about the ethnic thing, but about "disgruntled" postal workers? Jerry's lucky the guy didn't whip out a Kaloshnikov (sp?) and spray the street with lead!
Chris "I'm from NY, so I can insult the city, dammit!!!" Walsh