Connolly's, Chiswick

Had a thoroughly disgusting experience in Connolly's today during the Chelsea/City game. I am a woman in her 30s of Oriental appearance and whilst waiting to be served, a group of 5-6 guys sat at the bar proceeded to say 'Ni hao' several times to me. Unfortunately a lot of people don't realise this but that is incredibly racist, ignorant and offensive. Disgusted by their behaviour I told them that they were being racist. They confirmed their lack of intelligence by questioning my statement. (They probably also didn't even realise that their unsought for and unwanted attention directed at myself was harassment.) I told them that they looked at the colour of my skin and ignorantly decided that I was Chinese rudely oblivious to the fact that I could be, for example, Thai, Japanese or Malay (or English or French for that matter!), and their treatment of me with a sweeping generalisation was racist.

I turned away to ask the bar lady for a drink and she insisted on knowing why I was upset, which I presumed was out of concern. I explained that the gentlemen (a generous description) had been racist. They then had the audacity to deny that any of them had said anything to me at all, including 'Ni hao' and I responded by telling them they should at least be man enough to admit what they said.

Now, I understand that the bar can't be held responsible for the anti-sociable, disrespectful behaviour of their patrons. However, I couldn't believe it when the bar lady then proceeded to tell me that if I was going to be upset by that, then I should be the one to leave! In complete disbelief, I checked that I was hearing things correctly by restating that I'd been the one subjected to racist rhetoric and asking if she was suggesting that I should go, to which she responded affirmatively and then switched her attention to serve the person behind me!

Even though I wasn't a victim to any aggressive or violent racist behaviour, that doesn't mean that how I was treated was acceptable, and condoning any level of that behaviour creates divisions and tensions in society.

To be clear, I wouldn't have expected the pub to throw the group of men out because, to be fair, they weren't being abusive or violent, merely ignorant. But a decent human being would have told me to ignore them and then served me a drink. Instead she made me feel like the one in the wrong, the one making trouble. If that's the attitude of Connolly's staff, I would strongly recommend staying away from such a disgusting establishment that has no respect or care for people subjected to racist and anti-social behaviour.

21 Feb 2016 22:22