Racists at the Theatre

[juice4]

I just have to get this off my chest. I'm actually still shaking from the incident. My girlfriend and I went to go see a movie at our local AMC. We were there pretty early, so the theatre was pretty empty and filled up slowly until previews started. That's when an old rich white couple came in looking for seats. There were two seperated seats next to us (a woman was splitting them up) one of which we used to place our jackets. The couple walked over, simply stated : "Oh, there's two seats here" The lady sitting moved over to let them sit. My girlfriend started to move our jackets grabbing hers first at which time the woman became extremely impatient, grabbed my jacket and tossed it at her face yelling: "You shouldn't be taking up extra seats"

We told her we were happy to move our jackets and that she shouldn't touch other people's belongings in the way that she did when her husband told me to shut up Charlie.

We continued a yelling fit, at which time we chose to leave unable to sit next to such bigots. The management told us that these things happen quite often, and that he regretted that off duty officers weren't around today to deal with the situation.

Consolation was 2 free passes to replace the movie we missed, and 2 more for our next visit.

On this, the 2nd day of the New Year. What a way to start it off.

[s1eve]

Ur, why are they racists? It just sounds like an fussy old couple who thought you were taking up extra seats. You should've just moved to a different row.

[juice4]

The fact that he told me to shut up Charlie, and the fact that the lady had grabbed our stuff and threw it in my girlfriend's face?

Guess you had to be there.

[kusojiji]

You should have sat right behind them and spoken as loudly as possible all through the movie.

[eos]

We continued a yelling fit, at which time we chose to leave unable to sit next to such bigots. The management told us that these things happen quite often, and that he regretted that off duty officers weren't around today to deal with the situation.

Consolation was 2 free passes to replace the movie we missed, and 2 more for our next visit.

On this, the 2nd day of the New Year. What a way to start it off.

quite often? off duty cops to handle the situation? what is this, the theater from hell?

i hate seat-kickers, but you should have sat behind them and kicked them every so often. talking would have made other patrons unhappy and this situation called for a centralized annoyance.

[Chester]

It's probably a relatively safe assumption that "Charlie" had an anti-Asian, uh, slant to it...hence "racist".

Glad to hear the manager took care of you as best as he could. Glad you didn't pull any childish revenge tactics since that would retroactively justify their initial offense in their eyes and everyone around you. Plus, what's the point of sitting through a movie when all you're doing is focusing on behaving like a vengeful eight-year-old?

It was bullshit for the wife to react impatiently and totally unjustified for the husband to make a racist crack. In those situations, I find the most effective thing to do is to play dumb and ask him, in a loud voice, to repeat himself. Then he has to either repeat a racist comment that he probably will regret the instant he has to repeat it in front of a suddenly interested crowd, or he'll have to deny it. And if he does the latter, you can suddenly recall precisely what he said and ask him -- because you're just wondering -- if, by "Charlie" he meant to make a racist, anti-Vietnamese/Asian reference to you.

And then he has to choose to deny again in order to save face or to affirm for everyone watching that he's a racist. Either way, everyone's going to think he's an asshole and this will be a result of nothing but his own actions.

Finally: Unless the theater is largely empty, I don't think you should have stuff laid out on other seats. As soon as it starts to fill up to the extent that other people might logically want to sit in those seats, you should keep them completely clear without being asked to do so. Basic courtesy.

[Irezumi Kiss]

Unless the theater is largely empty, I don't think you should have stuff laid out on other seats. As soon as it starts to fill up to the extent that other people might logically want to sit in those seats, you should keep them completely clear without being asked to do so. Basic courtesy.
That would be the best etiquette, but usually (around here at least) people leave their jackets & bags on the empty seat right next to theirs. People coming in will look for the most available seat that has space around them to do the same. Only when it's obvious the joint's gonna be packed and people are gonna sit next to me no matter what do I bother moving my stuff. 99% of the time, people always avoid sitting next to anyone else until they's gots to.

Not totally racism with my experiences, but people continually piss me off in movie theaters. Like maybe 90% of the time no matter where I go, no matter what movie I bother to see, even if it's some obscure Merchant-Ivory 4-hour shit on the illicit rusty razor blade trade in Singapore, I seem to be a magnet for attracting freaks and idiots with broken lightbulbs for brains.

I went to go see "Secret Window" a few weeks after it came out, on my off day, just before doing my usual pub crawl. Theatre is moderately large, one where there is an aisle down an offset middle and seating on either side, more seating towards your right side. It's not packed at all, but most of the choicer seats in the middle are already taken so I pick a close to the aisle seat on the edge of the left side, second seat in. My screen vantage is perfect.

Halfway thru the trailers, two middle-aged women (white) decide to sit in the row I'm in, right next to me. Why they choose my row when there's plenty of even better seating for two people, I have NO fucking idea. But I remove my jacket and bag for them. Then, maybe ten or so minutes into the last trailer and towards the start of the flick, I can feel the woman closest to me continuously stealing glances at me. Finally, she asks me, "can you move down one seat?"

I decline to do so. I'm very happy with my seat and they don't have another person joining them. This apparently wasn't the answer she was expecting, because she keeps on trying to get me to move just so she could have a space barrier between me and her. And it's not so much what she requested, it's the WAY she was doing it — this whiny, needling, high pitched voice, as if I was causing her PAIN or some fucking shit just by being next to her...and this is while the damn movie is playing!

I told her straight up with a stone face "I'm not moving, lady. This is the seat I chose for myself. You should've came earlier." And I was so pissed off at her, that that was me struggling in being nice. She shut up then, but the damage was already done. Just having her next to me ruined the loopy vibe of the movie. Because not only that, she had the fucking nerve to talk with her buddy at various moments thru the flick.

Not the first or last time, either. You should've been with me to see "King Kong." I swear I'm gonna go Columbine one of these days.

[returntosender]

juice, reading just made my blood boil.

[koongchiulo]

Yep theres an old F***er at work that occasionally calls me Charlie, and thinks he's actually being quite funny.

I'm quite offended by it. But am afraid of confronting the old sod just in case he has another heart attack(He's already had two at work). And the other bit is that his gad dam son is my manager... so damned if I do damned if I don't.

Charlie Chan is the the asian equiv of the Black Minstrels... where a white man/men dresses up as an ethnic.

So Juice, I know how you feel...

[Paradox]

juice, reading just made my blood boil.
Hehe, I would have said fine and taken a seat right behind the old fucker. Then about midway through the movie i'd give the back of his seat a very hard kick and then leave the theater asap. Or maybe try to find out where their car is and key the bastard. I usually don't agree with immature retaliation but some people just deserve whatever treatment they get.

[juice4]

in retrospect i'm glad i didn't resort to vengeful tactics. i'm sure it would have escalated. (they seemed to be the type to pick a fight) besides, now i have 2 free movies to come!

somehow, i'm always caught off guard when things like this happen. faith in mankind and all that jazz. and i was even more surprised that this happened just a day after the holidays.

people around us were apologetic, despite the fact that they had nothing to do with the situation which helped me not lose all faith in all humanity. but it's starting to get pretty difficult.

on the subject of chair kickers, sometimes i'll turn around if someone's been kicking my seat for a while (i usually only complain if it's ongoing) and i'll get attitude back as if i didn't have a right to. worst is in the summer when people take off their sandals and prop their feet up on the seats.

what's wrong with people?

[returntosender]

Well, if it was me I probably would have made a huge fuss like 'WTF you piece of rat sh*t if you want to sit here just wait till I remove the jacket and then you can set your fat greasy ass down' and then I would have said something like now I can't watching this movie with you ignorant primitive monkeys sitting beside me.

If it was a younger couple I might have actually thrown a punch.

Well, if it was me I probably would have made a huge fuss like 'WTF you piece of rat sh*t if you want to sit here just wait till I remove the jacket and then you can set your fat greasy ass down' and then I would have said something like now I can't watching this movie with you ignorant primitive monkeys sitting beside me.

If it was a younger couple I might have actually thrown a punch.

Then again I'm only saying that from the comfort of my own home so maybe not.

or maybe not.

[tvbdude]

I would've punched the white motherfuckers. I don't tolerate this shit

[Craig]

juice4, are you in the SJ/SF Bay Area ? I encountered some younger white male fuckwads when trying to watch the last Star Wars movie.

[Chad]

I would've punched the white motherfuckers. I don't tolerate this shit
im with you on this.. i made a new years resolution to be less tolerant of this kind of shit. i started off on nye speaking up about it!
at least the manager was nice.. anybody called me "charlie" or anything like that and it would get ugly. ive made a decision.. pay cash everywhere whenever possible and dont run around with people who will tell anybody anything about you. if you just use cash youre safer because like in this situation, if you had used a card to buy the tickets or anything then they would have your name and info after you gave that fuck a concussion and hauled ass out of the place through the fire exit.

[hkRT]

in retrospect i'm glad i didn't resort to vengeful tactics. i'm sure it would have escalated. (they seemed to be the type to pick a fight) besides, now i have 2 free movies to come!

somehow, i'm always caught off guard when things like this happen. faith in mankind and all that jazz. and i was even more surprised that this happened just a day after the holidays.

people around us were apologetic, despite the fact that they had nothing to do with the situation which helped me not lose all faith in all humanity. but it's starting to get pretty difficult.

on the subject of chair kickers, sometimes i'll turn around if someone's been kicking my seat for a while (i usually only complain if it's ongoing) and i'll get attitude back as if i didn't have a right to. worst is in the summer when people take off their sandals and prop their feet up on the seats.

what's wrong with people?

Juice, I totally understand your situation and I too agree the couple was racist. Sometimes it's hard to prove racism if people didn't exactly blurt out the most universal racist slurs followed by a stab in the heart. It's almost like it has to be bloody obvious for everybody to concur it must be racist. Yeah, it's true not every situation and thing is racist, but when it is, it's not always very overt and violent although it hurts just the same. Many people just don't understand unless they themselves experience it first hand and feel it. It's the combined attitude, tone, vibe, exclusive animosity and condescension that set "subtle" racism apart from mundane rudeness.

It's good that the people around you seemed to understand as they were apologetic and stuff. I have been in situations or seen situations where people around were unanimously unsupportive and indifferent.

If I were you, I would be just as bothered by it. It's easy to say what I would do if this and that happened, but when it actually happened at a time you least expected it, I probably would get very upset and wouldn't know how to respond until minutes later. So I think you both already did a whole lot better than I would have if it happened to me.

I think it would be effective to ask them loudly to repeat what they just said. If reasoning doesn't help, making a huge fuss and verbal sparring with expletives will then be called for. I think that the management should have done more as well as the people around. Although two free tickets are nice, I would rather not have the free tickets and instead, have those two bigots kicked out of the theatre.

I have never put my jackets in empty seats but I see many white people, their family and kids put their jackets in empty seats all the time. That's very common. People usually assume the theatre won't be full until they see people coming in. Why don't those two old farts go harass those people and their kids?

Just today while shopping in the mall, I sat in a bench with my sis and my parents sat in the other. Both benches were only fit for two people. Then a white woman with a shopping cart came and stood next to my mom. Then the white woman said to her friend that my parents had no manners, meaning my parents should have given up their seats and let poor old her sit there since she had this shopping cart and stuff. That woman was not much older than my mom. If she really wanted a seat, she could have just asked instead of just talking shit with her friend right in front of my parents. BTW, my mom also happens to have arthritis. I didn't know about this incident until my mom told me afterwards what happened. I asked mom if she talked back to that woman, mom said she didn't, no point talking. Mom just didn't move and continued sitting there until she had to get up. Somehow Mom wasn't the least bit upset and just thought how ridiculous those people were while I just felt fed up with this kind of prejudice going on all the time. This is indeed trivial, there are things a thousand times worse than this. But it kinda shows people's prejudice even in things as trivial as who's sitting in a bench.

[grimfan]

Are you even Vietnamese?

The fact that the couple was elderly complicates matters: if you lash out physically, then you're seen as preying on helpless old people, and no amount of racism is going to warrant that in the eyes of public opinion. The best you can do in that situation is to publicly embarrass the offenders and leave the situation in a classy manner. At least you can rest in consolation that they will die soon.

However, if it was a younger couple, whoo boy, that's when it can get fun because anything goes. The best part is since you are sticking up for yourself, even if you get bested in a fight, you're still like a martyr, whereas the ass that instigated it (should he go down) is just a puss who can't back up his racist words. If the offender's young, then you gotta kick his ass because unlike elderly nitwits, that piece of shit's gonna be around for a long time, so you gotta straighten him up. If he's wearing an A&F shirt, go Hulk wild.

[n3bulous]

follow him home, find out where they live, call up your boyz and do a home invasion on they're a$$e$.

put fear into them boozhie white folks.

[juice4]

juice4, are you in the SJ/SF Bay Area ? I encountered some younger white male fuckwads when trying to watch the last Star Wars movie.

no actually. i'm actually in montreal, canada.

Although two free tickets are nice, I would rather not have the free tickets and instead, have those two bigots kicked out of the theatre.

i asked the manager to, and he was absolutely sympathetic to my cause, but was reluctant because he didn't want the incident to escalate. he handled the situation well. but thinking about it now, i should've just went with the fuss for my own peace of mind. i'm still so angry about it, one day later.

Are you even Vietnamese?

The fact that the couple was elderly complicates matters: if you lash out physically, then you're seen as preying on helpless old people, and no amount of racism is going to warrant that in the eyes of public opinion. The best you can do in that situation is to publicly embarrass the offenders and leave the situation in a classy manner. At least you can rest in consolation that they will die soon.

not even, but my girlfriend is vietnamese/chinese. rudeness is sometimes already hard to tolerate without it turning to something racial. it almost felt like they were ready for a fight, like they were looking for one, just the way he was so quick to pull out the 'charlie' crack when i wasn't even talking to him.

but that was the problem. that they were elderly. *die die die*

[Player 0]

Look on the bright side, they're elderly, you don't have to kill them, because god will do the job for you sooner or later.

[koongchiulo]

lol @ player0.....

[returntosender]

ah heck. At least you know what to do next time.

[diving_cats]

Actually calling someone a "charlie" is a racist and chucking someone's own belongings into their faces is just downright rude. If anyone did that to me, they are looking for a fight. Someone would end up falling into the bottom rows of the theatre seats!

All I can tell the author of this post is that, at least the theatre ppl understood how u guys felt and offered some kind of compensation for such an unpleasant experience with some racist classless folks.
You coulda had it worse if the theatre ppl told u and ur gf to get out and took the other ppls sides, right?

I am not racist and actually my bf is white but even if he was there, and that had happened to me, the both of us would be calling that couple a bunch of classless trailer park trash idiots with no manners. Well...I'm very good at "telling it like it is" to ppl, that even when the rudest ppl hear my comments back on them, they get some sort of realization about how dumbass they have been. But that's just me.

Whoever said it wasn't racist then, you tell me the meaning of a charlie and a nip and a chink and even a gook. Well I know specifically all those meanings, but obviously you don't.

Speaking of which, I know really fkn dumbasses who call chinese ppl "nips", or call japanese ppl "gooks". Not only are these terms offensive, but if you're going to be racist at least try to use the proper terms.


who cares if they r old. old doesnt mean u can be racist. tell them they r old school and that the toothless trailer trash needs to go get himself some dentures and to quit drooling or even touching ur coats. tell them also to get up to date with the 21st century, sorry they r falling behind, why don't they go and kill themselves....must be a miserable poor white couple.

[Laz3n]

Juice4, I was caught off guard like you have with some racial remarks before. It was not as bad as yours, but it really pissed me off for awhile. I was outside a restaurant checking my voicemail when a group of white college kids were walking towards me. They overheard some Chinese people talking to each other in Chinese loudly. As they walked closer to me, one of them looked straight at me and tried to mimic what the Chinese people were saying. It totally caught me off guard and I didn’t know how to react. I was by myself and there were three of them. They were gone before I could think of something to say. I felt like I got sucker-punched out of nowhere.

Thinking back on it, am I suppose to always have some kind of reaction prepared for future remarks? Is that how we’re suppose to live everyday, ready for somebody to racially insult us and comeback at them with something we already stored in our heads? Am I supposed to have my “radar” on for racism every single time I walk out of my house?

[juice4]

....must be a miserable poor white couple.

i wish that were the case, it would make me feel better that their racism was spawned from lack of education due to being poor. but it was quite the opposite. they were a rich older couple who live in the 'better part' of montreal.

Thinking back on it, am I suppose to always have some kind of reaction prepared for future remarks? Is that how we’re suppose to live everyday, ready for somebody to racially insult us and comeback at them with something we already stored in our heads? Am I supposed to have my “radar” on for racism every single time I walk out of my house?

it's sad to have to be ready for things like this. but i suppose the same way someone would go for self-defense courses, a person may prepare for such a verbal 'assault'. i don't think there's anything wrong with a certain amount of preparedness as long as you don't turn paranoid as a result.

[mr. x]

damn that's fucked up, did Canada even send troops to Vietnam?

anyway, I know you said they didnt want it to get worse but I think that giving you tickets just to let it slide was a copout on their part for trying to appease everyone without punishing their behavior

[deez nuts]

you should carry around a whistle from now on. if it happens again, blow the whistle and start rushing towards them just like how the viet cong do in movies like "platoon", "hamburger hill" and "we were soldiers."

[koongchiulo]

They overheard some Chinese people talking to each other in Chinese loudly. As they walked closer to me, one of them looked straight at me and tried to mimic what the Chinese people were saying. It totally caught me off guard and I didn’t know how to react. I was by myself and there were three of them. They were gone before I could think of something to say. I felt like I got sucker-punched out of nowhere.

You should have replied.... "you do realise you have just said I eat my dads poo on a regular basis in chinese"

And then run like the wind....

[eos]

the free tickets don't mean shit. the THEATER itself didn't offend you, 2 of its patrons did. i would have demanded an apology from the old farts and if that didn't happen, vow to never return to the theater again. you can't let something like this slide because they were old, "oh they don't know any better", etc.

[ahsingjai]

Well look at this, At least you didn't get a fever yesterday. I'm still recovering.

When I saw king kong a week ago, there were kids behind me resting their foot on the back of my chair. I had to slam my chair back a few times until they got the picture, because the dad wouldn't do nothing when I was mugging.

and I think the term Charlie is a bucktooth character way back then, not sure.

[s1eve]

Yeah, I wasn't familiar with the "Charlie" comment since I'm a kiwi but now having read the comments, I fully sympathise with what happened to you and your girlfriend.

[returntosender]

charlies is what they call the vcs i think. I remember in Forrest Gump the Gary Sinise character referred to the enemy viet congs as 'Charlies'.

maybe there's a reference preceding the vietnam war. I don't know.

That reminds me, does anyone know anyone named Charlie anymore? I grew up knowing a couple but I don't think I've met a single Charlie since.

[mr. x]

charlies is what they call the vcs i think. I remember in Forrest Gump the Gary Sinise character referred to the enemy viet congs as 'Charlies'.

maybe there's a reference preceding the vietnam war. I don't know.

That reminds me, does anyone know anyone named Charlie anymore? I grew up knowing a couple but I don't think I've met a single Charlie since.
VC is most definetely what I thought of first, so yeah to me he wasnt just calling him some bucktoothed character but target practice

[younggiftedandblack]

charlies is what they call the vcs i think. I remember in Forrest Gump the Gary Sinise character referred to the enemy viet congs as 'Charlies'.

maybe there's a reference preceding the vietnam war. I don't know.

That reminds me, does anyone know anyone named Charlie anymore? I grew up knowing a couple but I don't think I've met a single Charlie since.
Charlie comes from Viet Cong. In military lingo VC was spoken as Victor Charles then just got shorten to Charlie.

[juice4]

I completely wasn't ready for the 'Charlie' crack. I don't hear it used often, and it feels a bit outdated.

For anyone who's interested, there's a racial slur database (http://gyral.blackshell.com/names.html) just about every nationality you can think of is on the list.

it lists 'Charlie' as such: Originated during the Vietnam War (1960-1974) from the phrase 'Viet Cong,' shortened to V.C., which in the military phonetic alphabet is 'Victor Charles' which gets you to 'Charlie.

[Banana]

Should have called him Jerry.

[juice4]

Should have called him Jerry.

lol banana!

[mr. x]

juice any reaction from people around you?

[koongchiulo]

I always thought the term charlie originated from "charlie chan"...

http://www.charliechan.net/

All the actors are caucasians...

[fresh22]

I would wear a big puffy winter jacket, makes you look bigger than you really are (i.e. people don't like sitting next to obese people because they take up up the space). I used to do that in college so that I would have the seats next to me free in class, plus maybe people didn't want to sit next to me b/c I'm Asian anyways though either way it worked:P

Though that didn't take care of people sitting behind me. I always seemed to have rude seat kickers sitting in back of me.

[juice4]

juice any reaction from people around you?

of course most people were startled. some people actually gave some support on our way out. i think in the end it was pretty obvious that we were the victims in the whole thing.

[Chad]

I would wear a big puffy winter jacket, makes you look bigger than you really are (i.e. people don't like sitting next to obese people because they take up up the space). I used to do that in college so that I would have the seats next to me free in class, plus maybe people didn't want to sit next to me b/c I'm Asian anyways though either way it worked:P

Though that didn't take care of people sitting behind me. I always seemed to have rude seat kickers sitting in back of me.
An excellent strategy.
http://www.normandinart.com/PUFFER_FISH_L.jpg
For people sitting behind you, I recommend attaching false eyes to the back of your head to ward off predators who may approach from behind.

[robotic]

An excellent strategy.
http://www.normandinart.com/PUFFER_FISH_L.jpg


Fugu power YAW!

http://www.wextech.ca/images/fugu.jpg

[mr. x]

of course most people were startled. some people actually gave some support on our way out. i think in the end it was pretty obvious that we were the victims in the whole thing.
well im glad to hear that most people in your area have some damn sense in them