Strange things you're not used to

[Udella&Wiz 325]

I am most offended by questions of race, age or sexual preference

SSN - had a question about race, optional, but still. I chose not to answer it

Marriage cert - race? Is this 1960 or what?

Dr's office - wanted my SSN...told them I didn't have it yet...what the hell do they need that for? Never asked for it in Canada

Dr's office - asked my sexual preference...#######? My husband said, if you put homosexual, they would be concerned about AIDS

Sorry -each of these situations has made the hair on the back of my neck bristle......and also makes me jump to the conclusion that Americans are racist/ prejudice etc....

Not true of course...but I begin to wonder what's up. ...they need revisit some of these antiquated laws

[Dr. Obvious 49]

Ironically, they ask you questions about race and gender because the government keeps check of those kinds of things to make sure businesses are compiling with the Equal Employment Opportunity laws. They are forced to at least ask for reporting purposes by the government. You don't have to answer.

[athena_ny 1]

I am most offended by questions of race, age or sexual preference

SSN - had a question about race, optional, but still. I chose not to answer it

Marriage cert - race? Is this 1960 or what?

Dr's office - wanted my SSN...told them I didn't have it yet...what the hell do they need that for? Never asked for it in Canada

Dr's office - asked my sexual preference...#######? My husband said, if you put homosexual, they would be concerned about AIDS

Sorry -each of these situations has made the hair on the back of my neck bristle......and also makes me jump to the conclusion that Americans are racist/ prejudice etc....

Not true of course...but I begin to wonder what's up. ...they need revisit some of these antiquated laws

As I stated before, they're actually newer laws to make sure employers are being equal opportunity lawyers. And 99% of the time in my experiences, it says RIGHT ON THERE that you don't have to answer.

[Nessa 23]

- not having bakeries everywhere with fresh bread and yummy pastries

- not having people filling up the gas for me (i hate having to leave my car for that)

- not having alcohol at the same aisle as the beverages, I have to go to a different store for that

- having to see 1 doctor to get a referal to another doctor and having to wait months for the 1st appointment

- not being able to schedule my therapy weekly for several weird reasons

- pay taxes, the price you see on the product isn't the price you pay to the cashier

- clothing sizes, not being able to find my size cuz they just don't have more than 1 pair of pants that size (if they sell all size 2 on the day it arrives, just order twice as much instead of having a whole bunch of size 18 nobody buys)

- not being able to air the house by opening the windows cuz there's A/C and heating so we're always closed like in a prison

- trying to figure out how many gallons/mile when I'm used to liters/km

- no metric system

- even though i was causasian in brazil here they have a special race if you're white and not born in america but I still haven't figured out which one am I

- tipping everybody

- not finding a seamstress (we would find one every corner in Brazil) to fix my clothes and the one I found is highly expensive

- the absurdly high prices they charge for services that are cheap like manicure, pedicure

I could go on and on with weird things here

[athena_ny 1]

- not having bakeries everywhere with fresh bread and yummy pastries

- not having people filling up the gas for me (i hate having to leave my car for that)

- not having alcohol at the same aisle as the beverages, I have to go to a different store for that

- having to see 1 doctor to get a referal to another doctor and having to wait months for the 1st appointment

- not being able to schedule my therapy weekly for several weird reasons

- pay taxes, the price you see on the product isn't the price you pay to the cashier

- clothing sizes, not being able to find my size cuz they just don't have more than 1 pair of pants that size (if they sell all size 2 on the day it arrives, just order twice as much instead of having a whole bunch of size 18 nobody buys)

- not being able to air the house by opening the windows cuz there's A/C and heating so we're always closed like in a prison

- trying to figure out how many gallons/mile when I'm used to liters/km

- no metric system

- even though i was causasian in brazil here they have a special race if you're white and not born in america but I still haven't figured out which one am I

- tipping everybody

- not finding a seamstress (we would find one every corner in Brazil) to fix my clothes and the one I found is highly expensive

- the absurdly high prices they charge for services that are cheap like manicure, pedicure

I could go on and on with weird things here

When I go to the store, I can never find my size no matter what size I am. Could never find 6s when was a 6, now I'm a 10 and I can't find that.

Though, when I worked retail, there were far less people who needed the size 2s and far more people who needed the in between sizes - even the larger sizes, we got very few of. While there may only be 2 size 2s, it may take 2 months for those to sell as opposed to 2 weeks for the size 8s and 10s and 12s. This is in general, of course. Now, in the juniors section it makes more sense to have more smaller sizes, so we got more in of those, usually. It's just more cost effective MOST of the time. (We got very few 18s if it helps )

As for the special race thing - Hispanic is made up by the US government, I have an issue with that. My husband would just call himself mestizo if he had the choice, but puts Hispanic because he's obviously not "white". If you're white and that's what you consider yourself, I'd just put that

[Mononoke28 135]

I know, I never understood that. I thought race was the physical appearance, skin tone, that kind of thing. But isn't Hispanic a culture more that anything? I'm white but was born in Colombia, so I guess I'm not caucasian, even though I'm whiter than vanilla ice cream, but I'm Hispanic/Latina because of my culture. Ok, I just gave myself a headache.

Diana

[Nessa 23]

I know, I never understood that. I thought race was the physical appearance, skin tone, that kind of thing. But isn't Hispanic a culture more that anything? I'm white but was born in Colombia, so I guess I'm not caucasian, even though I'm whiter than vanilla ice cream, but I'm Hispanic/Latina because of my culture. Ok, I just gave myself a headache.

Diana

exactly. same with me, but with the exception i don't come from a hispanic country. I have no spanish in me whatsoever, which is the only thing that could put me in the hispanic race category, so I'll just keep answering that I'm caucasian cuz that's what I am. I'm white, I come from a country with no hispanic afiliation and my family came from Germany, so no reason to put hispanic just because they think everybody who's not from North America, they're from ''down there'' should be hispanic

[athena_ny 1]

I know, I never understood that. I thought race was the physical appearance, skin tone, that kind of thing. But isn't Hispanic a culture more that anything? I'm white but was born in Colombia, so I guess I'm not caucasian, even though I'm whiter than vanilla ice cream, but I'm Hispanic/Latina because of my culture. Ok, I just gave myself a headache.

Diana

exactly. same with me, but with the exception i don't come from a hispanic country. I have no spanish in me whatsoever, which is the only thing that could put me in the hispanic race category, so I'll just keep answering that I'm caucasian cuz that's what I am. I'm white, I come from a country with no hispanic afiliation and my family came from Germany, so no reason to put hispanic just because they think everybody who's not from North America, they're from ''down there'' should be hispanic

Hispanic is a race made up by the US census bureau so they could further pigeonhole the people from Spanish speaking cultures this side of the atlantic - they're from South America, they couldn't possibly be white!

And I agree Brazil is not a Hispanic country - I know some Brazilians who only called them Latina for this reason (which I guess would make a little more sense, as descending from a Latin based language, but then you could call French people Latina too or Romanian ... and uh, they're not. I know Brazilian culture can be very similar to some of the other South American cultures, but then I just refer it to South American culture when I am including Brazil.

My husband is mestizo and doesn't want to be confused for a cholo, so I think he is happy putting hispanic, but he still says it doesn't make any sense. I think this country did themselves a huge disservice by inventing a race based on a culture only to further pigeonhole people.

I have friends who've said some stupid things - some of M's sisters and brothers look very white, and his dad was very white, and upon seeing pictures said stuff like, they can't be from South America! They're white. It just fuels stupidity, imo, to, like I said, develop a race of "Hispanic" when it's not a race.

I gave myself a headache too. But this is one of those things that upsets me, as an American.

[Mononoke28 135]

I thought we were all considered Latinos since we come from Latin America, and that includes Brazilians as well. I'd much rather use that word than Hispanic, it makes more sense since it's based on geography and not "race".

Diana

[athena_ny 1]

I thought we were all considered Latinos since we come from Latin America, and that includes Brazilians as well. I'd much rather use that word than Hispanic, it makes more sense since it's based on geography and not "race".

Diana

Hm. I thought it was called Latin America because they call you Latino. I knew I never should have listened to that Spanish teacher. (Seriously, she was a tool. And they fired her when she forged all the evaluations for the class )

In that case I'll just use Latino. M prefers Latino over Hispanic but doesn't really care. But I still have an issue with the whole race issue.

[PlatyPius 5]

I'm white, I come from a country with no hispanic afiliation and my family came from Germany, so no reason to put hispanic just because they think everybody who's not from North America, they're from ''down there'' should be hispanic

South American.

I reserve "hispanic" for people who seem to be from Mexico, Puerto Rico, etc.

I've never liked "Latino". Do y'all speak Latin? Then where the hell did Latino come from? lol

I tend to call people what they are.... Mexican, Columbian, Shoshone, Blackfoot, American, Canadian, etc.

All-encompassing labels (such as hispanic) tend to encompass no one, really.

[mamajo 1]

I recall having to put my race on our application for the marriage license, and many job applications also ask for race. In Canada, this is illegal. btw, I put "white" on the marriage license application, the lady behind the counter looked at my passport, scratched it out and put "Canadian" under the "Other" checkbox! We tried to explain the difference between nationality and race, and she would have none of it! *snarf*

Lots of labour laws (labor) in the US are a lot different than in Canada and take some getting used to.

LOL I don't know how you didn't pass out laughing right in front of her.

Yeah, race is illegal in Canada. It should be here too. I think I better get up to snuff on labour laws here in the states. I want to start my own business.

I had a call about an application I put in somewhere the other day; they're going to do interviews. The lady says, "you're from Canada right?". So I said, "yes I am". She then asks, "how old are you?". I was thrown for a loop and responded, "I'm old ENOUGH". I don't know if that's illegal here but I know it is in Canada. I was just floored.

OMG she did that?! You mean you can't be white if you are from Canada?!?! Sounds like she had a screw loose

She probably thought only Eskimoes come from Canada.

that's crazy...even for for me as an american. it is illegal for any american company to ask those questions. i'm not even sure why that question was asked, but it should not have been allowed.

[bora bora 1]

I've enjoyed reading this (I'm the USC), and after hearing some of the "normal" things in Canada - sounds like I should take another trip there.

Our SSNs used to be top secret - now we use it for EVERYTHING. And people wonder why we have so much identity theft....hmmmmmm...let me see....

My husband used to get mad when they'd call him Hispanic since he says he is not (which is true). I tell him it's the closest thing and that Americans don't know the difference.

[Alex+R 0]

- not having bakeries everywhere with fresh bread and yummy pastries

- not having people filling up the gas for me (i hate having to leave my car for that)

- not having alcohol at the same aisle as the beverages, I have to go to a different store for that

- having to see 1 doctor to get a referal to another doctor and having to wait months for the 1st appointment

- not being able to schedule my therapy weekly for several weird reasons

- pay taxes, the price you see on the product isn't the price you pay to the cashier

- clothing sizes, not being able to find my size cuz they just don't have more than 1 pair of pants that size (if they sell all size 2 on the day it arrives, just order twice as much instead of having a whole bunch of size 18 nobody buys)

- not being able to air the house by opening the windows cuz there's A/C and heating so we're always closed like in a prison

- trying to figure out how many gallons/mile when I'm used to liters/km

- no metric system

- even though i was causasian in brazil here they have a special race if you're white and not born in america but I still haven't figured out which one am I

- tipping everybody

- not finding a seamstress (we would find one every corner in Brazil) to fix my clothes and the one I found is highly expensive

- the absurdly high prices they charge for services that are cheap like manicure, pedicure

I could go on and on with weird things here

Really, besides the litre/gallon issues, etc. almost all of those problems you listed just come from you not living in a very big city. Also, you're white. We don't have a special race for foreigners; we actually do have an official government way of calculating race, and it's based on the country/ies you feel is/are most dominant in your ancestry. So you are officially white here.

[Alex & Rachel 78]

Sales tax always gets me. Fortunately I've not been embarrassed yet as I've always paid by card...but I just know that one day I'm going to be using cash, and not have enough on me to cover sales tax.