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When a traveling family asked a 16-year-old for some directions, there was a slight misunderstanding.
How did the family respond to said confusion?
They went with full racism, launching the situation from 0 to 60 in about half a second.
The direction-giving kid was handing out flyers with a friend when the whole thing went down, as they posted in Reddit about the event.
Holo-Best-Waifu, as they're known on Reddit, began by giving some cultural context for the miscommunication.
"We were approached by a family of tourists asking for directions to the nearest subway. In my country we don't use the term subway as a substitute for trains but associate it to the sandwich food chain."
Already, this situation was primed for disaster.
After unexpectedly arriving at an international fast food restaurant instead of a public transit station, the family apparently had no interest in cutting its losses.
The family took the extra time to return and demand some answers.
"30 minutes later they came back to us, clearly pi**ed and scolded us for wasting their time by giving wrong directions."
Holo-Best-Waifu, however, was not about to swallow that scolding.
"I pulled out my phone and went to Google maps to show them that there is in fact a subway where I directed them to."
That minor pushback was evidently enough to make the family abandon all deference to the locals.
"Then they looked at me and said straight to my face 'are you stupid, we meant trains, you've caused us to be late, learn some better English would you'."
"What they said, to me seems pretty racist because I'm Asian and it sounds like they're assuming that I don't know proper English."
But the out-of-towners were only getting started.
"After that the man just said 'damned china people' (although I'm not even from China) and walked away."
The offended teen then took the last word.
"Hearing that was the last straw and I just shouted 'Go back to your own country then c*nts, we don't need people like you here'."
The C-Word spewer then looked to the subReddit "Am I the A$hole" (AITA) for some moral clarity.
Plenty of Redditors took the teen's side, supporting his response and empathizing with the anger that racism produces.
"Racists deserve everything they get, and it doesn't sound like you were particularly over the top, anyway." u/LipstickRevenge
"You misinterpreted a question, and they came all the way back to scold you, and then on top of that said racist things?" u/WasteFarm
"So they were in a non-American (because of the word 'subway') speaking country and expect people to speak their language instead of trying to speak the language of the country they visited and then they were mad (and racist) because you didn't understand their particular dialect." u/Poekienijn
"I'm a pasty white Australian and also would have assumed they wanted sandwiches. It pi**es me off too when English speakers give other people sh*t for not knowing and using their specific branch of 'superior' English."
"Sounds like these guys were also keen for the opportunity to let out their inner racism on a couple of helpful teenagers." u/Brontawalrus
"Something about telling a racist to go back to their country feels so satisfying" u/joc95
Some acknowledged the racism but took the Redditor to task about his inflamed response.
"I mean what group of tourists would be looking to go to a very mediocre at best fast food chain. Just surprised you either didn't say, no can't help or do you mean the metro or train." u/tankollie
"Yeah I get you are pi**ed but the 'go back to your country' bit can bite you in the a** hard if someone video taped it." u/OrangeName
"People on this subreddit seem to think that if someone else is an a**hole first, it means you can say whatever you want without being an a**hole."
"That isn't how it works. You don't get not the a**hole if you were justified, you get it if you didn't act like an a**hole." u/pepe_le_frog_95
"Plenty of people use the term subway to refer to trains. Broaden your world view a bit."
"They suck bc it was stupid for them to wander 1/2 hour in the wrong direction without double checking. And they suck bc they were racist. You suck bc you escalated." u/macimom
Others were very focused on plot points, and launched into tangents about some other story elements.
"You know, I think the real a**hole here might be Subway for intentionally picking a punny name that leads to this kind of confusion." u/WasteFarm
"Question, did they not also possess access to the rather rare and hard to obtain cellular device you used to demonstrate that you did in fact point them to a subway?" u/linx1984
"Local vernaculars are just that... LOCAL. The term subway in reference to metro systems is (I think) American / western English?"
"I've heard the terms metro, underground, tube(s), and subway all to refer to underground citywide railways." u/G_Art33
Lesson of the day? Do a quick Google search before you travel and learn the terms used in the country to cut down on confusion.
Also, don't be racist.