the RACE card

this anecdote ties in an an event that happened a while ago with the repercussions of that event, which i just happened to learn about today.

a couple months ago, a bald, middle-aged, overweight asian man came into my shop with a magna mountain bike. typical time-waster dude- 298332987 questions, no intention of actually buying anything. don't people use the internet anymore? fuck, the word "google" is now a verb because, thanks to the miracle of the internet, you can find the answers to any stupid question your heart desires! ok, i digress.

this dude tells me he wants to buy our toughest tires ($45 each) to put on his magna (read: crappy ass department store disposable bike- we don't work on these and no respectable bike shop should, really) because he plans on riding it across the philippines. c'mon. a fucking magna? i'm not trying to be bikesnobnyc here, but lets be realistic- why the hell would you spend $90 plus $12 for tubes and $14 labor to install tires on a bike worth well under $100 new? it doesn't make any sense. i told him not to waste his money and try to get a better bicycle that he can actually repair or find parts for when he breaks down in the jungle in the middle of nowhere.

if you know me, you know i'm a pretty nice guy. eeeeevvvvvery now an then you get a guy like this who leaves you no choice but to be a dick to him, just to get him to leave. we hate doing this, but really do have work to do.

when you try to convey common sense to someone totally as clueless and hard-headed as this guy. . . it never works. debate ensues- i decide to stop wasting my time, ask him to leave. this is the last i hear about him.

then today, i learned that he actually wrote a letter to the head of the non-profit org that runs our shop. of course, we had to address this by explaining WHY we don't work on department store bikes, the lack of available or replaceable parts, low quality of components on them, and how they are meant to be used and disposed of instead of repaired. . . . blah blah. its an age-old argument.

here is where it gets good: he claimed HE WAS RACIALLY PROFILED and then asked to leave?! wtf? did he totally miss the fact that i am also asian?? uhhhh what interest would i have in racially profiling someone my own race? its not like asians typically ride sucky bikes. . . we asians love our sweet rides! wtf??

so alas, we reach the moral of this story- while there is an appropriate time for pulling the race card. . . . this was the perfect example of an inappropriate time. ha.