(Hope this doesn't qualifiy as, or degenerate into, politics. I intend it as general social commentary, and at least tangentially related to cars :-))
I expect most of you who follow at least general news headlines have seen today's remark from Pres. Obama about being mistaken for a parking attendant:
Quote:
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There's no black male my age, who's a professional, who hasn't come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn't hand them their car keys...
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Now that really struck me as an example of reality disconnect, in several ways. First, I'm about his age, equally a professional, yet have never been to the sort of restaurant where valet parking* is provided. So what does that say about some people's rather blinkered social expectations?
Second, even though I've never been in a position where I could have been mistaken for a parking attendant, there've been a number of occasions where I've been taken for a similar sort of service person. Now even though a preference for an active outdoor life means I usually have a pretty good tan, I'd suspect my blond hair & green eyes would keep people from thinking I'm black, so I'd think that sort of mistake is hardly evidence of pervasive racism.
So I'm curious: how many of you sometimes get mistaken for service persons (not counting times when you actually were working as such, of course), and how do you react?
*And I certainly wouldn't trust my car to a random parking attendant. Would you? And do you ever go to places where such is expected?