Thread by @FionaKenny1

Was just in Lidl with my 7yr old. Her team in the family draw, Croatia, got the furthest so she was buying treats and chatting to me as we put them & the rest of the shopping on the conveyor belt. Nothing odd so far. So far...

The guy at the till said "Ah Croatia were the real winners".
Me: Ah, coz of their fans?
Him: No, coz they were at least Croatian. The French team aren't even French.
Me: Excuse me?
Him: Yeah, they're not even French. They're African.
Me: No they're not. They're French.

Him: They just have French passports. They're African.
Me: They're French. What's your problem with the French team?
(I did also mention France's colonial past & how nice it was to see such a diverse team. He wasn't buying it)

Me (again): By the way the vast majority of the French team were born in France and are French. A tiny number of squad came to France as toddlers, were raised in France, went to school in France, have French as their first language and are French.
Him: No. They're Africans.

At this stage, it did cross my mind that the guy on the till had a Central or Eastern European name on his badge and spoke with an Eastern European accent, so it's not a stretch to assume he is an immigrant. If his kids are born in Ireland, learn Irish in school, maybe have

an Irish passport in years to come, grow up and play for Ireland, I'll assume they're Irish. Anyway, I didn't start the chat about the French team. The Lidl man did, but I was sure I was going to finish it.

At this stage, we were packing the shopping. In bags and getting ready to pay. There was now a queue behind us.
Me: Is it that the whole Croatian team are white?Is it just the black people on the French team you've a problem with? Would that be your problem?

Him: They're not French.
Me: Good grief. I think a lot of what you've said could be construed as racist. I don't want to say this to you, but it's what I think.
(Now putting card in machine. Accidentally typed digit wrong)
Him: RELAX. Just relax and you'll get the number.
WTF!

The Lidl man who invited himself into my chat with my child, to tell me that Croatia won because all the French team are African and not French, just told me to relax. I was perfectly calm. I was measured in tone.

I didn't call a manager. I simply explained to the man, as I was handed my receipt, that his comments were really the same comments that racists make. I also had my child with me & remained calm and polite.

Other people in the queue were shocked at his behaviour. They were shaking their heads at him. A few people think I should have called a manager.A woman in the car park approached me afterwards to say that she thought he was out of order & that I was well able for him (& polite).

I explained that I bring up my kids not to tolerate racism when they see it. I couldn't stand and nod to the man in Lidl while my child was there. I had to say something to him. My daughter is 7 and *she* was shocked by him.

I think Lidl might need to do a bit of multi-cultural training with some of their staff - or at the very least send some info explaining their pride in their own diverse staff, who I know come from many countries.

Maybe also explain:
Black people can be French.
When a customer explains this, don't dig a bigger hole.
Don't tell a female customer to relax.
Anyway the final comments on leaving the till:
Me: They don't just look like racism. Your comments are racist.
Him: OK.
I rest my case

Just had a very good conversation with @lidl_ireland who were very quick to contact me. The woman I spoke to, took a lot of time to apologise about the experience. She also apologised that my child had to listen to the comments.

I explained that I was giving an example of everyday racism, rather than attacking a whole company. I also didn't want anyone's head, rather that Lidl would take another look at how they train staff around diversity and racism at work.

The Lidl woman was great. You could tell she wasn't paying lip service and was also shocked at the comments. I'm confident they'll do something to look at how they deal with racist behaviour in the workplace.

We're now going to eat the Lidl jellies my daughter bought! She's glad that if Croatia had to lose, it was to France. 🙂