I worked wiht a mechanic named Muhammad from Egypt I believe. I was 18 at the time, he was middle aged. He was a great guy. Funny, humble, generous, and a hard worker. We were working on a car together and I said “hey m’fer pass me the wrench”. He was almost in tears as he asked me not to say these words to him. Next day same thing happened. The words left my mouth before I had a chance to stop. He lost his shyt. He began screaming at the top of his lungs and banging the frame of the car with his wrench like a madman. Apparently he took the term literally and thought I was actually telling him to fcvk his mother. We all assured him I meant no offense and I apologized profusely. It never happened again and we went on like nothing ever happened. Sometimes language barriers and slang profanity aren’t a good mix.
I worked with some Russian type muslims. They were very hard working and had a good since of humor. They all cussed like sailors in English. So I asked one to teach me Russian curse words. He got real serious and told me it was against his religion to use swear words.
My first job I had a black manager and we got a long like no one else. Always cracking jokes ect. I looked forward to going to work with him even though he was 20 years older than I was.
I had a bad habit of calling people boy and it didnt matter color. Shoot I was 17 and was living in Rio linda Ca. I though we were all the same. I didnt grow up in a racial household and I didnt see color. My parents struggled as much as everyone else in the area.
So one day we were working today and I we were giving each other **** lol. I called him boy, big mistake! This was someone I considered a friend and I didnt know it would offend him. Oh man did it. He took me in the back room and pretty much attacked me. This was a shock because we were boys and I didnt understand why he was so upset until he explained it to me.
We went on to become great friends. I left that job shortly after and started my shop. I worked on his cars and next to nothing.
To this day it is a memory that sticks with me. I wear my heart on my sleeve and its something Ill never forget. Never used the work again but it just sticks with me. It sux.
Sometimes white people dont understand at a young age what offends people. It maybe different those day as this was almost 30 years ago.
Anyone else have something like this happen in their youth where they didnt know what they were saying offended anyone.
For the record I went on a fat cow kick as I thought it was funny at 15. I didnt talk to my aunt for years after that one. She wasnt fat but it was a slag I picked up.
one of my teachers had hard nipples when i was like 10 years old. i pointed it out (no pun intended). she go very mad at me.
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