![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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.