This Morning My Teenager Said "I'm not racist, but..."

I'd planned to write about another topic today, though it's preparation would've taken too much time, which I don't have an abundance of today, due to other commitments. So I've decided to instead post about my Teenagers negative attitude in regards to LoveFilm which resulted in a remark from my said Teenager, which at best I deemed inappropriate and at worst racist, in a nationality type of way as opposed to race...

Blandford Buzz says "Thankfully bees aren't prone to "isms" 

My Teenager loves all things xbox and so decided to opt for the LoveFilm free films package for a month, which was viewable via the said box. Now the months trial came to an end today, meaning from there on, to continue one will have to pay, so my money savvy Teenager hastily phoned up LoveFilm at about 11am this morning, which in itself is a triumph - my Teenager actually getting it together to transfer his thought ie get out of bed into action ie actually getting out of bed before midday !

My Teenager was very polite and thus explained that it would no longer be necessary to continue with the LoveFilm package, translated I'm too tight to pay five quid a month when I can watch movies in lesser quality but for free online (which is what my teenager actually said to me after the phone call) It took about 15 minutes for the man at LoveFilm to accept that my Teenager would not be subscribing (now that he would've had to have payed), in the end I told my Teenager to say, "I can't afford it now but when I get a job in a few months time I will subscibe" I knew that the man at the LoveFilm call centre would be relatively satisfied with this - and he was !

Once off the phone, my Teenager said "I'm not racist but I couldn't understand a word he was saying, he sounded Indian, why can't LoveFilm employ people in this country (UK) to take the phone calls...".

Immediately I told my Teenager off and said, to say I'm not racist but... is a prefix for racism and it's a contradiction really meaning I'm not racist but what I'm about to say is a little bit racist or could be construed as racism. I explained to my Teenager that it would have been more fitting to have not raised the matter of nationality at all, instead it would have been better to have said "...I couldn't understand a word he was saying, LoveFilm should ask their phone operatives to speak less quickly and more clearly..".

I also mentioned that racism is a slippery slope and even the slightest hint of an "ism" should be consciously corrected immediately, so that no bitter root makes its way in to the subconscious - my Teenager apologised for the flippant remark and has promised not to say anything like this again...