An Irish chap came in and someone had left something behind the bar for him, saying he had left it for ‘Guinness Mick’. To which said Irish chap said ‘Well at least that’s an improvement on ‘Irish Mick’”. To which the barman replied: “Well that’s pretty much covered by ‘Mick’ innit?”
Naturally, I was ready to call the police at this appalling racism, but was prevented from doing so by the fact that, rather than break down in tears of rage or taking to Twitter, the Irish chap simply laughed at the joke and carried on bantering amiably with everyone.
So, in other words, someone was in a position to portray himself the victim of a hate crime, but instead simply took a ‘joke’ in good part and as not as evidence of any ill-will or racial hatred.
Genuinely baffling behaviour.