Did you ever stop patronizing a business because an employee tried to guess your ethnic background? -

Once I got a pedicure (no the lady wasn t Asian) and the lady said Are you *insert ethnicity* because you look *insert ethnicity* I was upset because she was just doing my toes and asks this irrelevant question out of no where. I still get my hair done there by someone else but have never gone back to her for a pedicure.Another time a seamstress said Where are you from? Florida, I answered. She then asked Where are your mommy and daddy from? New York I answered. So your mom is American? she asked. I was pissed first why would my mom and not father be foreign and she was doubting my parents were American. Then she had the nerve to say You look *insert ethnicity* or *insert other ethnicity*. I never went back because she asked the question out of no where and she knew where I was from so her comments were irrelevant and unnecessary.

If it s just an employee asking, you could inform the manager, or tell the employee that it s not an appropriate question/comment.I wouldn t blame someone for skipping a business because of the way they are treated. If something is offensive to you, you have every right to react like this. The reason I say inform the owner/manager is that it s quite possible that this is against their rules, and they are losing other business from it. As a business owner, the last thing that you want is to lose customers (especially permanently) because some employee doesn t know how to act in a professional manner. If you like the business, this may be a good approach. Otherwise just don t go back.

I am rightfully proud of my ethnic background. I don t care if people try to guess or ask. Perhaps the person asking has questions and wants to learn more about my ethnic culture? I have neighbors who I thought were Turkish because they speak arabic and smoke tobacco with one of those water pipes you often seen in Turkey. I don t know what the water pipe is called. So one day I asked their son if they were Turkish - American and he smiled told me they were Lebanese - Americans. I learned something and he taught me some thing about his Lebanese roots.

It doesn t bother me at all. Some of the guesses that I get are outlandish. One guy at a circle K thought I was egyptian. It s pure comedy to me.

No cuz I look and am white.

Aren t you a little sensitive? Sounds to me she s simply curious. I ve lived in four countries with very different cultures and I ve picked up a little of each. I also speak three languages and can fit into 3 different groups so people have a hard time guessing where I am from. You re almost like that Dr. Lee on Three Rivers the TV show the other day. He s ethnically Chinese, but he s born in Detroit to yuppie parents. And that dying man with a bad liver used racial barbs to get under his skin. Frankly, if there was a racial insult, then you d be justified in taking offense. But if you re just INFERRING insult, perhaps the problem wasn t with that employee.