Does This Make Me Racist?
A question in another section has prompted me to stick my head above the parapet with this one.
I am a fairly frequent hospital in-patient and have encountered fellow patients of all races and colours. I accept their religious differences, dietary needs etc and get along with them all. The hospital I attend is in an area with a large Pakistani population
One thing that really gets my goat up is the preferential treatment often given to Pakistani women. Here are two examples. Read them and tell me if I am being racist or am I in the right to feel aggrieved? In both examples, the women in question could speak English.
1. Visiting is restricted to 2 persons and visiting time is 6pm - 8pm. I had two visitors, as did all other patients, except a Pakistani woman who had SIX visitors, not including a screaming baby. At 8pm, all the visitors left, apart from the Asians. At 9pm yet another one turned up bearing numerous foil cartons of curry which they proceeded to eat around the bed. When I had a quiet word with a nurse she told me SHE would be accused of racism if she asked them to leave. I was fuming. Half an hour later they were still all there and when I looked across, the baby was laid on the bed, in amidst the foil containers, having its rather smelly nappy changed. At this point I lost it, told the nurse in charge that if she wouldn't ask them to leave then she should find someone who would have the guts to do it or I would intervene myself. She did ask them to go and they looked very disgruntled.
2. A different Pakistani woman in the same ward as me was screaming and wailing so loudly I thought she must be in agony. This went on for hours and no one could sleep. Around 1am, 4 female friends/relatives turned up to sit with her. The screaming stopped and they spent the rest of the night keeping us awake with their laughing and joking. Later that day I asked her why she had been screaming and she said "I was bored and lonely. I knew they'd ring my family if I kept up the screaming."
What is your verdict?