Sociology popped up in my mind when..

So I was at work today, minding my own business, sort of, and a Hispanic family came up to the register. Oh by the way in case you were wondering I work at the most awesome place ever...Portillos. Anywho, so clearly they wanted to place an order and when I went to ask "What can I get for you guys?", they all stared at me and the dad said, "En espanol." I looked back at him and told him "Si, yo se espanol!" which means "yes I know spanish." However this guy didn't seem to believe me and just kept staring at me like I was a crazy person or something. I nodded my head and smiled trying to show them I could take their order considering I know the basics of spanish, but they weren't talking. So finally I decided to go get another Hispanic worker who could translate for them. The minute this other worker walked up, the customers started ordering. I was so confused because I had clearly said I knew spanish and I am almost positive they understood that yet they wouldn't order with me.

I wasn't legit mad or anything but I can honestly say I was a little offended just because to me I was trying to put in effort and work with them but they just assumed since I was white that I didn't know spanish well enough. What made me laugh was the part when they saw the Hispanic worker walk up to the register, they immediately started talking. This incident just reminded me a lot of this class considering it's called sociology and I started to kind of think about society and how it really works after this happened. So I'm sitting there at work, well actually standing, and just pondering this through my head. I told the other worker about what they did and he simply said in a joking voice, "That's just us typical mexicanos!" He just kind of giggled it off and didn't think anything of it. I know it's not a huge deal but to me it was because I felt that I was being judged by them. They looked at my skin color and assumed because I wasn't exactly like them that I couldn't speak their language. This is just one example about how society is run though. People all the time including myself will look at someone and judge them instantly just based off of looks. It's really sad to me that that's what it's come down to but it only takes one to start a change. I think from this experience I'm going to start to look at everyone as their own individual and not base them off of a stereotypical "label." It was a very interesting night at Portillos to say the least..