racist with a gun

the buiLding i work in is undergoing rennovations on the front entrance, so for the next few weeks aLL empLoyees, cLients, etc wiLL have to use the back entrance.
the back entrance is accessabLe through a dank aLLey behind a parking garage - there's usuaLLy homeLess peopLe doing drugs there during day Light hours.
since the rich peopLe now have to use the rear entrance, the buiLding hired an armed security guy to hang out in the aLLey during the day.

anyhow, i'm an outgoing guy and i'LL taLk with anyone, so i usuaLLy exchange smaLL taLk with the armed man. today i made a quip about the smeLL of fresh urine (the homeLess stiLL frequent there when there's not a man hoLding a gun there) and somehow, that was his opening to speak about japanese internment camps.

and then it got weird.. when he brought up the camps, he said, "..where they used to Lock up the japs" - my ear perked up when i heard the sLur and i began to rationaLize in my head different reasons for him using that term, but before i couLd finish my reason(s) for forgiving him he used the terms gook and sLope a few times.

i apparentLy must have tipped him off that i wasn't comfortabLe with his choice of Language or beLiefs because he cut out in mid-sentence to inform me that he was a vietnam vet and so he has probLems with asians - funny he didn't use a sLur then. i then made a joke to redirect the conversation - i toLd him, "oh, then you'd hate to Live where i Live" - i currentLy Live in quincy which has a huge chinese popuLation.

my mistake - that directed the man onto his views on immigrants and how they need to Learn our Language or get the fuck out.

i aLso Learned from the man in our (approx. 5 minutes Long) conversation: the japs were brutaL in WW2, they tortured the chinese and americans; we paid them $20,000 each for internment, and japan has never apoLogized or compensated their victims. japan has taken aLL our jobs.

2 things in summary...

1. is it because i'm a white maLe that compLete strangers can feeL free to be and obnoxious racist around me? (rhetoricaL i know)
i usuaLLy try to confront peopLe Like that, but i didn't here; maybe it was because he's a stranger.. or he cuz he had a gun.. but mostLy because i was compLeteLy shocked and unprepared for that. every other conversation i've had with the man was of the "working hard, or hardLy working" variety.

2. who the fuck gave him a gun!!!?

Ignorance is almost as abundant as greed.

Just the slightest thing will stick in their craw forever, it seems. I've heard so many rants about how we never hear about German or Italian people that were interned, only the Japanese... and how other races never got money for it, how Japan never compensated the people they mistreated, etc. etc. etc.

It's going to be a long time before some people of different races can drop this crap, I think.

he did mention his grandfather came over to this coutry from itaLy... i just don't think he's grieving for reparations though.

maybe, just maybe, with that much hate and discontent in his heart, and a gun immediately at hand, this may be a self-limiting problem.

i'd suggest stopping at the package store and purchasing him a bottle or two of legal depressants every couple of days.

... prejudice.

The sad fact is that the Japanese military did brutally torture Chinese and Americans in WW II.

I'm not sure if we compensated any American-Japanese detainees, but I know that Japan never compensated American soldiers who were abused in captivity. One reason is that our own government would not let them.

The comment about Japan taking 'all our jobs' seems a bit dated. Everyone knows that India is taking our jobs now!! :)

Personally I feel that it is important tha immigrants learn the English language, but the government needs to set up programs to help them.

Here's one reference I found quickly...

http://www.alternet.org/story/12470

When idiots start spouting all kind of racist tripe around me & they assume that I will agree b/c i'm a white guy. I used to work in a very urban environment & these racists would come in to my office(invariably 60 yr old plus white men) & would say crap that I couldn't even believe.

I never knew what pissed me off more, the stuff these guys would say or that they evidently figured it would be ok to spout off in front of me.


Also, what's up with the "L"s?