prejudice

so, long time ago I asked 'bout ideas to get my life on track. well I did end up finding the place harrad was talking about.

so I talked to tha guy and after like ten minutes he's saying he wants something who can read. now I know that I ain't the best with words and the wonky translator isn't helping either, but I can read. So I show him by reading the stuff on his stand and he's all saying that it's not the point that I can read, I must look like I can read.

that's bullshit, 'kay if they're going to hire me to do expeditions I would need survival skills not reading skills, reading is useful but facing down a pack of Quega that ain't going to save your life. and how the hells do you dress to look like you can read? I was wearing my finest clothes, even got a long-sleeved tunic on and everything. he just thought I couldn't read because I'm a sepper from somewhere far-off.

he did end-up hiring me to lug stuff around in the back room, and handle some of the low caliber weapons, one day per week, which is a step up from nothing.

anyway this left me wondering what kind of prejudice have ya faced, and what did you do about it?

A batarian called me a worthless "two-eyes". Said it made me inferior, disgusting, and lower than him.

So I shoved my thumbs into his two upper eyes.

I think it was a beautiful exercise in really getting to common ground during a dispute.

I am a salarian studying cryptography on Earth. I will let you imagine the rest.

Oh let's see. Let me just start early on and ignore the varrenshit I dealt with as a child on the Migrant Fleet.

On my pilgrimage I was stuck in Citadel customs for hours as C-sec asked me every single question they possibly could. I hadn't even stepped foot into the place and I was already being treated like scum.

Then, when I finally got into the place, I found that getting an actual job was nearly impossible.

Oh, and apparently. vagrancy is illegal on the Citadel so I was run in for that too.

This was the good part of my pilgrimage.

Oh well, there's me being a hedonist living of the family bank account.
So not true, ahem, I won't disclose the amount but there's money to spare for Palven. Strangely enough the tax office is totally not living under the assumption that I don't have income. Oh no.

Since it happened recently, me supposedly living a dangerous lifestyle. I guess that was directed at STD, organized crime, drugs...
None of the above really. The most "dangerous" thing I am facing is ruining my knees and hips. Seriously, I do care about where I work and I don't do extras. I even care for my knees. I love my knees.

Do you have any idea how many Primacy institutions blacklist you when you leave the compact?

Almost every month or so, I get asked directions on the Citadel from humans who've never left their colonies, and every time I give it to them, they don't reply with a "Thank you," but with a, "Hey, by the way, I don't want to sound… racist or anything, but you don't… talk/act like a krogan."

Well, excuse me. Shall I point, grunt, hoot and holler like a pyjak? Do you want me to end every sentence with a growl or punch at the nearest living thing? Should I be firing shotgun blasts into the air while quad-deep inside a varren the next time I see you? I didn't know there was a contract on how to "act" krogan. I must've ran past that in my Rite.

I laughed at this harder than I should've.

Seriously, that's actually pretty fuckin' hilarious. Good show.

Anyways, prejudice. More than a little in the year or so I lived on the Citadel. C-Sec visits to my apartment were...frequent, to say the least. Plus assholes always trying to start shit in bars. One of several reasons why, in spite of the outcome of the war and everyone generally not being mega-dicks to everyone else (less so than before, anyways), I never went back.

I took it in stride. Nice and quiet, no need to start shit.

About a week after the Fall of Earth, my Asari half-sister made the descision to enlist in the Alliance after being evacuated to the Citadel. The recruitment officer told her to take a Aircar down to Purgatory, and get a job there. When I heard about this, I permanently reassigned that officer to a frigate making hit-and-run attacks on the Reapers. After that, I authorised her enlistment, and got her assigned to my ship.
Or, in her words "That arrogant ass, thinking all the Asari do is dance! Oh well, at least now I can let mother know how we're doing."
And hey, after years of hard work, she's currently serving as my XO aboard the Auckland.

Goddess, what a bastard that guy was.

I run a shop that commonly has people asking idiot questions and children buying Grim Terminus Alliance. I get racism thrown at me every day.

I got a bit of flak for 'stealing' turian lady for myself and generally being informed I had made the right decision in recognizing my inferiority to the Hierarchy prior to inevitable subjugation of Earth. This was on Epyrus when I was freshly-minted tier 1.

These days I'm told my loyalties lie with who I lie in bed with and I curse them in language that has no translation packages available in-cluster.

Also, captain Wagstaff? Did you promote a family member and toss a guy who blocked her into certain death for the trouble?

So you got him killed. Nice to know our brass care so much about the lives of their subordinates that sending one to death for pissing them off is a-okay.

For the record, no, he didn't get killed, at least not until after the war, when he decided to pick a fight with a Krogan when his ship docked at Omega to resupply.
And Juhani, the Admiraty promoted her, not me. I just assigned her to my ship. And, I would have thought just fighting the Reapers conventionally would have been certain death.

An Alliance ship on Omega, sounds like the start of a new absurdist piece. Sadly that type of thing is tragically overdone and usually pushing the bounds of patience as it is.

For shame Juhani, by no means did he reaffirm the notion that all her success and access is undeserved! He merely had someone who was perhaps chugging the Terra Firma koolaid a touch too often reassigned to what he no doubt assumed was certain death (why else then would he have assigned him there after all? That's the whole punchline) and had his sister made the beneficent of unbridled favoritism, thus neatly undermining the entire work ethic of the military in a microcosm. Nothing else!

Well I mean apparently now one of his direct subordinates is family but I can't for the life of me recall any regulations against such an astoundingly high degree of fraternization and compromised judgement.

You are literally the worst person in the fucking universe.

No for real though what the fuck is wrong with the Alliance?

...

Oh fuck me I survive the Reaper War and now I'm going to die working for some shitcan like this.

It's Fleet, what did you expect? Them to not spend the majority of their day either polishing cocks or dicking over everyone beneath them?

Or rather I should say "and then".

Well, you can imagine. Prostitution's not so poorly-regarded in the Republics as elsewhere, and Illium to its credit (that's not a phrase I get to use much, it's nice when it comes up) really doesn't care what business you're in so long as you've filled out the mountain of forms to show you're doing it properly, but I've worked on enough Terminus worlds to face it from time to time. And no matter the society, you get individuals who'll cling to their little preconceptions no matter what. Not to mention the extranet. :) There are plenty of settlements where as I am now, a publically-known escort, the notion of me having any kind of leadership role in a 'real' company would be laughable - I wouldn't even be able to get my calls returned. Not to mention on the personal level, where it'll be assumed that by 'virtue' of my profession, it's inconceivable that I'm not a drug addict, diseased, the victim of some abusive pimp, or take your pick. Not that they're often interested in the idea of doing anything about whatever systemic abuse does exist within the local sex industry, most of the time; I can guarantee you, any colony where it's accepted 'fact' that all sex workers are victims there are still an awful lot of upstanding citizens happy to pay for time with said 'victims'. I can feel a rant building, I should stop.

Anyway, yeah - I have to say personally I haven't suffered prejudice to any great degree, but I've felt it. As to what do I do about it? It depends why that prejudice comes about - what about me invites it? Am I careless, do I neglect my health, my appearance, do I allow myself to be taken advantage of, or say nothing when I see it happening? I'm content that I don't. The way I look, the way I dress, the way I behave, what I choose to do with my life? I like all of those, I don't want to change them. So I do what I please, and if that leads people to make unwarranted assumptions... well, as Ana would say, fuck 'em.

(Not literally.)

Oh you poor dear. I have no idea how you manage.

Was told I would live in die in the slums of Brasil. Went on to join the Alliance and have been to so many places I can't even count them now.

Was told I would just be a grunt in the Alliance. Went on to join two different branches of special forces in it. (In retrospect I think everyone is told that during basic. Guess I was just one of the few to react to it with fervor.)

Few people tried to mess with me on Omega as I was just some human. They're dead now. I encountered that problem in the Abyss as well and the solution was the same.

There's also this belief that I only kill people and that's all I've ever done. I don't particularly care about that one so not much has been done to change the mind of persons who believe that.