sorry NOT sorry!

i’m really flabbergasted by an interaction i had yesterday and would love everyone’s input!

yesterday, i was approached by a white woman in her early 40’s and she asked me if i was free to help her so i responded “yes, of course! what’s up?” very enthusiastically.. the woman looked at me with pure shock and was clearly taken back by my response, and proceeded to say “i have NEVER been greeted like that before.” confused… i asked what she meant. she replied with a whole SPEECH about how i lacked social training and that retail “back in her days” was much more professional and that using verbiage like “what’s up?” is a joke and makes her feel insignificant. i told her i meant absolutely no harm by it and was sorry that it made her feel that way (puke i absolutely regret this now). she very passive aggressively smiled, accepted my apology and proceeded to tell me that i “need to learn how to take things into perspective because we’re not in the hood. this isn’t a government housing zone” ….?….?!?!? i am a refugee from Myanmar and grew up in community housing so you can imagine my frustration when she said that. when i explained my backstory to her she immediately turned red and started word vomiting (white guilt perhaps) and shared that she went to university in the south and she moved all around the country and isn’t too familiar with different types of communities in our city etc privileged white lady babble etc etc blah blah. she even said to me “i would have never thought you would come from government housing.” 🤢

at this point i just had to walk away because she kept profusely apologizing but i couldn’t do it, i could no longer entertain such ignorance.