Prejudice Night At Denny's

Luis had to work particularly late this evening, so we decided to catch a late night meal at Denny's. It took us forever to get a table, as there were only two servers on and the place was a bit busier than usual.

We eventually got seated in a booth, at the edge of a curve of three tables. On the far end of the curve was a table with four Latino men. The next table at the curve held a group of six or seven high school boys who, from the looks of their uniforms, work at the local Go-Kart racetrack. Then there were us, followed by a table with an African-American woman having dinner with an older white lady.

As we were sitting down in our booth, we started getting he hairy eyeball from the table of Latinos, who commenced to start making some discussion amongst themselves with frequent looks in our direction. Although my Spanish is pretty rusty, I DO recognize slang for "faggots." I'm not sure what it was about us that was bothering them. Too bad one of them was really hot...the nasty looks and comments made him a whole lot uglier.

Meanwhile, the group of high school boys had been visited by the waiter, who was also Latino and whose English wasn't that great. Since there were six or seven of them, he said he needed to put all of their items on one check. As he headed back to the kitchen, the boys started making snotty comments about his inability to speak excellent English and saying things like "oh yeah, I've got your tip" and pulling their hand out of their pocket to show their middle finger. Of course, being teenagers, they also kept referring to things as being 'so gay.' Completely rude and immature.

Meanwhile, the woman behind me remarks to her African-American dinner companion: "I think she was Asian. I mean, she was awfully slanty-eyed." Then she actually tittered. I've only read about tittering...she actually pulled it off.

I wonder if there was some sort of coupon in the newspaper for a discounted meal if you brought your prejudices to Denny's tonight. Needless to say, it was NOT one of the better experiences I've had there.