A funny thing happened on the way to the theater. Or maybe not so funny. My dad and I were going to purchase tickets for Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the Marquee Cinemas Orchard 10 in Toms River, NJ. It’s 2 in the afternoon and no one’s around. In fact, the box office is empty. We’re wondering where to buy tickets when a worker (white, male) at the concession stand says, “Tickets over here, Kim.” At which point I figure a coworker named Kim was going to come over and sell us tickets. No one comes over. So then he says it again to me: “Tickets over here, Kim.”
Keep in mind there’s no one else buying tickets at the moment. Just us. Not until I was back in the car did I think to myself, “So why did he say Kim? Was he calling me Kim?” To be fair, I’ve been mistaken for Korean before, but seriously? And what about all the Parks?
Over the years, I’ve heard all sorts of racial slurs, but Kim is 1a first. Sort of like Mick, I guess. And maybe I could have called him Mick or Mario or Fritz or who knows. I can’t tell—they all look the same!