Drivers in the Bay Area / Silicon Valley

[UniversalTraveler]

Don't know if anyone here was in California back in the 80's. There was a disc jockey on a FM station in San Jose that used to do a skit called "Oriental Driver". It had audio that simulated the driving experience of an oriental driver in traffic down that way. It was wayyyy too funny to be honest, and ironically at that time, not far off of the truth.

This was before the liberal woke ways were adopted in the Bay Area. Wouldn't ya know it the disc jockey ended up losing his job. No sense of humor on the part of the station management I guess. Not politically correct enough even for those times. Oh well. It's tons worse these days.

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by UniversalTraveler

Don't know if anyone here was in California back in the 80's. There was a disc jockey on a FM station in San Jose that used to do a skit called "Oriental Driver". It had audio that simulated the driving experience of an oriental driver in traffic down that way. It was wayyyy too funny to be honest, and ironically at that time, not far off of the truth.

This was before the liberal woke ways were adopted in the Bay Area. Wouldn't ya know it the disc jockey ended up losing his job. No sense of humor on the part of the station management I guess. Not politically correct enough even for those times. Oh well. It's tons worse these days.

We joke about Asian (that's the proper term fyi) drivers all the time, and nobody seems to care much - not even the Asian people here, in fact they're often the ones making the jokes. I'm guessing that DJ was actually being offensive; and you are likely someone who can't tell the difference between tasteful ethnic humor vs offensive stereotyping. Because there's still plenty of ethnic comedy being told, yes, even here in the Bay Area.

And for the love of gawd, please stop using that stupid "woke" term. Not because it's offensive, just because it's so played out and LAME now. Nobody uses it unironically anymore. lol

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by gizmo980

We joke about Asian (that's the proper term fyi) drivers all the time, and nobody seems to care much - not even the Asian people here, in fact they're often the ones making the jokes. I'm guessing that DJ was actually being offensive; and you are likely someone who can't tell the difference between tasteful ethnic humor vs offensive stereotyping. Because there's still plenty of ethnic comedy being told, yes, even here in the Bay Area.

And for the love of gawd, please stop using that stupid "woke" term. Not because it's offensive, just because it's so played out and LAME now. Nobody uses it unironically anymore. lol

Agree about the term woke. Only senior citizens watching Fox News still use that. As for driving, our Asian friends always call it DWI -- driving while Asian. Lol

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by tstieber

Agree about the term woke. Only senior citizens watching Fox News still use that. As for driving, our Asian friends always call it DWI -- driving while Asian. Lol

Haha, yup. I've heard that one too! One of my friends is Japanese-American, and when I first met her, she said she'd moved to San Jose from Cupertino; I asked why, and she replied "Too many Asian drivers there, I feared for my life."

Obviously a joke, but illustrates my point. It's okay to JOKE about those things, if you do it in a respectful and obviously joking manner... so I'm betting that DJ was actually being offensive, and for most people that line is obvious.

[mysticaltyger]

The biggest difference I noticed between the Bay Area and SoCal is Bay Area people will not let you in when trying to change lanes on the freeway. I'm not sure if they're oblivious, don't care, or just think that giving someone six inches clearance to change a lane is enough.

Several other people I know have brought this up without me saying anything, so I know it's not just me.

Now I live in the Philadelphia area, and the drivers here have their own annoying habits (like being heavy on the horn), but they mostly let people in when you're trying to change lanes.

[citizensadvocate]

Speaking of this how bad was cinco de mayo this year. This seems to be an only in San Jose thing most Mexican/Mexican Americans elsewhere don’t even recognize the holiday. In Escondido or San Diego there isn’t any of these sideshows of pickup trucks, low riders, and all those bad drivers with flags drappened on them nor do police or CHP force you to get stuck with them four hours by name of their confidential traffic diversion plans, just for trying to get through the city to go home or to the airports to make the flight and San Josw just happens to be in the way.