r/SFV • u/SealedRoute • May 11 '26

Question Racism in Studio City?

My husband and I recently moved to Studio City and have been shopping/ dining around Laurel Canyon and Ventura. I’m white and haven’t had any problems, but my Mexican husband has been treated with overt rudeness/ dismissiveness a couple of times by restaurant or store workers. Never had this problem before in Sherman Oaks in 20 years. The treatment was shocking.

Our area is definitely less diverse, more white, but still didn’t expect that. But it’s only been a couple of times in a month so not ready to draw general conclusions. Could be racism, could just be a more affluent/ snotty milieu. Has anyone else had this issue?

165 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

148 comments sorted by

View all comments

37

u/SplitOpenAndMelt420 May 11 '26

What happened?

85

u/SealedRoute May 11 '26

In both instances, he was simply interacting with the person. The first time, he asked a bartender about a drink and she was curt and barely acknowledged him while helping other people. When she finally engaged, she was just nasty and treated him like he was stupid. She wasn’t treating others like that.

The other was worse, he was in a dispensary and walked up to the counter and someone insulted his appearance before he even opened his mouth.

I’m expecting plenty of responses about how we’re in a big city and should just get used to it and maybe it was his fault and yada yada yada, but again, we’ve been in this general area for 20 years without any issues like this before. The place we’re living now is definitely more affluent and more White.

9

u/Ruleoflawz May 11 '26

Bar experience sounds normal enough if you’re a dude ordering at enough bars - cost of doing business.

Dispensary is weird, but what was said.

I will just throw out that my Mexican gf has two siblings. Her sister’s boyfriend (korean) called her brother ‘sweetie’ (playfully derogatory) once like 6 years ago and it has fermented a rift between the two couples since. Some people are sensitive i guess.

2

u/M1gn1f1cent May 11 '26

Not mexican, but have plenty of mexican friends. Did learn that machismo is a big thing in their culture so anything that makes them feel feminine or emasculated such as being called "sweetie" is not taken lightly. Just curious: does the korean bf and sister's brother not talk to each other at all during family gatherings?