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skyring"We're not racists, but..." she said, as she and her partner settled themselves into my cab.
I had been puzzled as to why the pair had sat waiting on a seat at the taxi rank until I pulled up, even though a cab had been idle on the rank in front of them. They had finished their cigarettes, got up, walked straight past the waiting cab, and got into mine.
I indicated the cab ahead of me. “You should take the first taxi on the rank. He’s been here longer than me.”
Now, just as we cabbies are allowed to reject passengers if they are under the influence of liquor or drugs, have dirty clothing, or are abusive or threatening, passengers are entitled to choose whichever cab or cab driver they wish. In fact we’d been told this in taxi school, as a reason for keeping ourselves and the cab clean and presentable, because a passenger might bypass a scruffy looking cab and choose our gleaming machine instead.
But when I heard that “We’re not racists, but…” line, I wanted to kick out my passengers, cram them into the cab ahead of me and force them to take the trip.
It’s not as if they had ridden with the driver before and had been displeased with the experience. No, I gathered that they had decided against him because of his ethnic appearance. I didn’t even know what appearance that might be – the driver ahead was just a silhouette from my position.
I tried to imagine what the fellow must be feeling as he saw waiting passengers bypass his cab and drive away. He would have known exactly why he was rejected and it probably gave a touch of sadness to his day. It certainly did to mine.
It’s a fact of life in the taxi industry here and all over the world, that cab drivers are often people “fresh off the boat”. It’s not a job that requires much in the way of education or qualification. A valid driver’s license, a clean record, a bit of training and you are away. Realistically, anyone able to drive a car has the ability to plan and follow a route to a destination. We are allowed to look at the street directory, there are road signs, and half the time I find that the passenger will do the final guidance anyway.
If it comes down to it, English is not even required. A passenger can guide a cabbie home with just four hand signs, point left, right, go straight ahead, and stop. In fact, I’ve had passengers guide me using hand signals when they have been answering a phone call.
The driver’s job is to drive, not talk. A lot of times I’ve had passengers who didn’t bother to speak after they gave me the address.
Having said that, sometimes communication is important, and I grant that a cabbie who cannot speak proper English will be at a disadvantage when things move beyond the straightforward. He might then have to call taxi headquarters on the radio, another chance for communication to become strained.
But it’s an incorrect assumption that a recent immigrant will have poor English skills. Granted, many struggle with the language, but some of the most charming, articulate and enthusiastic English speakers are those who have recently learnt or are learning the language.
No. It’s racism, pure and simple – the assumption that because a person looks a certain way, they will act a certain way. And that this way will be unpleasant or discriminatory. What such a person is really saying is that they don’t want to be with someone who acts like they do.
I think that, in today’s society, such people will have to deal with the increasingly apparent fact that we are living in a shrinking world. Cheap air travel and global communications networks mean that national, ethnic and cultural boundaries are disappearing. Forty years ago, when I was a child, Australia was largely a monoculture. Now our cities are home to people from every land on earth, and we are the richer for it.
Those who yearn for a return to the days when taxidrivers were white, called Bill and Sam instead of Ahmed and Sanjit, and listened to the same radio stations everyone else did are long gone. The trend is the other way. Mosques are here to stay, kebabs outsell meat pies, and eating with chopsticks is becoming a skill learnt at an early age.
In an ever wider sense, global warming and other climate changes make it important for all of us to realize that we all share the one planet, and it is in our own best interests to learn to get along with our neighbours in Botswana and Kazakhstan.
Another way of looking at it is to take the words of Thomas Jefferson at face value, and to accept that all people are created equal, and if we have a commitment to democracy, the views of a Peruvian villager are every bit as valid as those of an Indian technoworker. Or an Aussie cabdriver.
I look at my fellow cabbies with interest. They are a diverse lot, but they are Australia’s future, and anybody who doesn’t want to ride with them has an uncomfortable journey ahead."
I had been puzzled as to why the pair had sat waiting on a seat at the taxi rank until I pulled up, even though a cab had been idle on the rank in front of them. They had finished their cigarettes, got up, walked straight past the waiting cab, and got into mine.
I indicated the cab ahead of me. “You should take the first taxi on the rank. He’s been here longer than me.”
Now, just as we cabbies are allowed to reject passengers if they are under the influence of liquor or drugs, have dirty clothing, or are abusive or threatening, passengers are entitled to choose whichever cab or cab driver they wish. In fact we’d been told this in taxi school, as a reason for keeping ourselves and the cab clean and presentable, because a passenger might bypass a scruffy looking cab and choose our gleaming machine instead.
But when I heard that “We’re not racists, but…” line, I wanted to kick out my passengers, cram them into the cab ahead of me and force them to take the trip.
It’s not as if they had ridden with the driver before and had been displeased with the experience. No, I gathered that they had decided against him because of his ethnic appearance. I didn’t even know what appearance that might be – the driver ahead was just a silhouette from my position.
I tried to imagine what the fellow must be feeling as he saw waiting passengers bypass his cab and drive away. He would have known exactly why he was rejected and it probably gave a touch of sadness to his day. It certainly did to mine.
It’s a fact of life in the taxi industry here and all over the world, that cab drivers are often people “fresh off the boat”. It’s not a job that requires much in the way of education or qualification. A valid driver’s license, a clean record, a bit of training and you are away. Realistically, anyone able to drive a car has the ability to plan and follow a route to a destination. We are allowed to look at the street directory, there are road signs, and half the time I find that the passenger will do the final guidance anyway.
If it comes down to it, English is not even required. A passenger can guide a cabbie home with just four hand signs, point left, right, go straight ahead, and stop. In fact, I’ve had passengers guide me using hand signals when they have been answering a phone call.
The driver’s job is to drive, not talk. A lot of times I’ve had passengers who didn’t bother to speak after they gave me the address.
Having said that, sometimes communication is important, and I grant that a cabbie who cannot speak proper English will be at a disadvantage when things move beyond the straightforward. He might then have to call taxi headquarters on the radio, another chance for communication to become strained.
But it’s an incorrect assumption that a recent immigrant will have poor English skills. Granted, many struggle with the language, but some of the most charming, articulate and enthusiastic English speakers are those who have recently learnt or are learning the language.
No. It’s racism, pure and simple – the assumption that because a person looks a certain way, they will act a certain way. And that this way will be unpleasant or discriminatory. What such a person is really saying is that they don’t want to be with someone who acts like they do.
I think that, in today’s society, such people will have to deal with the increasingly apparent fact that we are living in a shrinking world. Cheap air travel and global communications networks mean that national, ethnic and cultural boundaries are disappearing. Forty years ago, when I was a child, Australia was largely a monoculture. Now our cities are home to people from every land on earth, and we are the richer for it.
Those who yearn for a return to the days when taxidrivers were white, called Bill and Sam instead of Ahmed and Sanjit, and listened to the same radio stations everyone else did are long gone. The trend is the other way. Mosques are here to stay, kebabs outsell meat pies, and eating with chopsticks is becoming a skill learnt at an early age.
In an ever wider sense, global warming and other climate changes make it important for all of us to realize that we all share the one planet, and it is in our own best interests to learn to get along with our neighbours in Botswana and Kazakhstan.
Another way of looking at it is to take the words of Thomas Jefferson at face value, and to accept that all people are created equal, and if we have a commitment to democracy, the views of a Peruvian villager are every bit as valid as those of an Indian technoworker. Or an Aussie cabdriver.
I look at my fellow cabbies with interest. They are a diverse lot, but they are Australia’s future, and anybody who doesn’t want to ride with them has an uncomfortable journey ahead."
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A great post
Date: 2006-12-03 10:57 am (UTC)I am neither a book crosser nor a cabbie but I read your posts with interest, they are well written, positive and interesting. In fact I must applaud you, I read your work on Ozdebate and frankly I thought you were a wanker but I have changed my mind and you seem to have unshackled yourself from the Usenet forums and have become a much more positive and interesting internet entity. Bravo!
I am a 5th generation of Irish Catholic descent and I applaud your comments re racism, our country is changing whether we like it or not and we should all be more accepting of that fact. Sometimes it takes bravery to say that and you did so good for you, I catch many cabs in many cities here and around the world and yes there are good and bad regardless of ethnic background.
That’s all, keep up the posts they are good to read.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 11:43 am (UTC)Visiting Australia recently, I really hadn't expected such an Oriental flavour, but then read in a newspaper that about 25% of Australians weren't born in Australia! It's a cosmopolitan society and the bonehead racists should get used to the idea. Also I felt the people of northern hemisphere / equatorial Asian origin were happy to be Australian and liked the culture. This reflects well on white Australians.
I also get the impression that cab drivers worldwide are mainly of Asian or Middle Eastern origin. Certainly where I live in Cardiff you're most likely to get a Pakistani, Indian, Iranian or Iraqi driver. I'd love to see how your "We're not racist but..." passengers get on here. They'd be waiting for quite a while!
I discriminate in one way only. I hate those London-style black cabs. The seats aren't particularly comfortable or safe.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 04:00 pm (UTC)And I like to think of myself as well read, but I dont know what a "Cunny eater" is either. Please explain
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 08:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 04:00 pm (UTC)When I get into a cab, if I'm alone, I tell the driver where I'm going and then I say nothing else until we get to my destination, when I thank my driver. If the driver starts a conversation, I'll talk, but I never start a conversation with the driver. I don't like to take their attention away from their driving.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 06:06 pm (UTC)Hear Hear
Date: 2006-12-03 07:19 pm (UTC)One night an indian driver and I had a great time looking at the Tawny frogmouths on the way home near Appin, wombats and a few roos. He had never seen such creatures in the wild at night and was totally enchanted. Anyone else woulda run them down in all probibility.
I thing a 'cunny-muncher' is what we call a curry muncher. SOme one from the India area of the continent. Not usually a term of endearment. (Well nto at work anyway)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 08:06 pm (UTC)But the racism thing disturbs me a lot. I cannot imagine what your passengers were thinking. I cannot think that any decent person would turn down a cab because the driver was of an ethnicity other than their own, but obviously it does happen. What a shame.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-04 04:17 am (UTC)It's sad that the same Australians who tout the Aussie ideals of 'fair go', 'mateship' and support of the 'underdog', are often the same ones who buy into the immigrant stereotypes: "Why don't they go back where they came from?" Hypocrisy, much?
no subject
Date: 2006-12-04 04:16 am (UTC)* chuckle * my parents sometimes ask me if I'd ever move back to the UK (meaning where they are, in the Highlands.) I tell them that I might move back to London, where there are people of all shades, but not there, where it's white, white, white. Boooring.
Pats your back
Date: 2006-12-04 07:08 pm (UTC)Would like to thank the whole world for the "World Music" I enjoy.
When someone shuns a human they only deprive themselves. Thank all of the dieties for the internet so that we commoners can actually experience and meet the awesome people of the world!
Go you! We're proud of you for speaking up.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 10:06 pm (UTC)On an unrelated note, I love it when you'e philosophical, yet ardent.