Looking back, Horseshoe may have missed something moderately important in their Asian Cultural Awareness orientation.

Every new dealer has had this experience. You're dealing blackjack head to head with a Chinese man or woman, usually about 50 or so years old. They almost never say a peep; hand signals only. Then, they get a hand where it will be extremely favorable for the next card to be a 10-value card, either for them to draw to a 20 or 21, or for you to bust out of the 12 through 16 that you just turned over. The player suddenly comes alive. He starts slapping the layout in front of him, looks you square in the eye, and starts shouting "Monkey! Monkey! MONKEY!!"

It didn't take long for me to figure out that Monkey is Asian slang for a face card. It's a little disconcerting for most of us the first time we see this happen, because we wonder if the player has suddenly lost his marbles.

I am of the Caucasian persuasion. I'm just your average, every day, All-American, pudgy, geeky white guy.

In a conversation with an African-American co-worker, I've learned that they have an *entirely* different reaction the first time some little old Chinese guy starts slapping the table and shouting "Monkey! Monkey! MONKEY!!" at them. LOL!

One guy said he bit his lip and wondered how to say "Shut up you little yellow racist pr-ck" in Cantonese.

Given that about 25% of our dealers are African-American, they should probably be informed that the Asian guests are not (hopefully, anyway) throwing racial slurs at them.

Cheers,


Tim the Dealer

Tim,
interesting story!
I beleive that is one of the biggest problems in america today. People are to quick to go off on someone. I'm glad your co-worker had the sence to keep his mouth shut. It would have been a darn shame to loose a job over something like that.
Thanks for sharing!

I think it is a typical example how the age of being politically correct can get out of hand. When I was a kid we had a saying, "sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can never hurt me". Under that scenario, if someone said something offensive you could use that to judge their level of ignorance. Now we are a society of whiners that are spring loaded to be offended and somewhere along the line they passed laws to protect those tender minds.

Also, I find it very ironic how much training Tim had on being sensitive to the Asian culture. Tim never mentioned being trained on southern hospitality, the favorite colors of the hispanic community, or how Russians shake hands. Of course the answer is corporate greed. Still, Tim's extensive training is not appreciated enough for that culture to adapt to us.