[Travesty]

Don't follow through on the backhand.

[Days of Broken Arrows]

Building on this, I found a surprising thing here in the good ol' USA. There are a lot of black women in service positions and people treat them like inhuman servants -- then complain they don't get good service.

I found if I threw in just a bit of niceness with some light flirtatiousness, they become pretty damn helpful. In fact, I've made several friends at some of the local shops this way and not only are they not surly -- as people infer -- but they'll go out of their way for me, without me even asking.

From what I remember the generation of my grandfather and great-uncles regularly used to behave this way ("Thank you, good morning, looking fine.").

I also found this works less well with white women in the same positions for various reasons I don't feel like guessing at. Or maybe black women simply find me irresistible...hahahahaha.