Cross-cultural conflict

First Scenario: Fast Food
CONTEXT

Place: Drive-through fast food window
Time: Around 10 PM on a Wednesday
Who was involved? Fast food clerk, customer (me) in car.
Gender & age: Clerk was a manprobably in his 30s, I am a woman, aged 29.
Relationship: Customer / service worker. Never met before.
Other relevant characteristics: The man came from Ghana. I am biracial (African-American,German)

DESCRIPTION

I waited in line in my car, then ordered a cheeseburger and soft drink. The clerk spoke very softly. His right hand was on the cash register, his left at the window.
When hehanded me my order, he looked away briefly, then said to me "Very sorry. In my country, Ghana, it is very rude to do this." I must have looked blank, because he then added, "handing a customer food withthis hand."
I sensed that he felt bad, and I said in a bright smile, "Oh, whatever," and gave a wave of my hand. Then I drove away.
MY INTERPRETATION

Only after I drove away did I realize that hewas talking about the left hand being unclean. My mind was (frankly) on getting food and getting home quickly.
I think he was probably talking to me as another Black person about something thatreally made him ashamed.
At the time, I reacted in very American mode: I wanted to be friendly, to tell him that he didn't insult me, that everything was fine. And I wanted to get going.
In my culture,there's no particular stigma attached to using the left hand, so it didn't seem like a big deal to me.
THEIR POSSIBLE INTERPRETATIONS

It is possible that in his culture, the taboo against usingthe left hand is so strong that he can't put aside those feelings when he is in the U.S. even though he knows we don't care.
Does he apologize to everyone? I think he assumed that a Black Americanwould be more sympathetic, would listen to him as a real person, would honor his African culture. Or maybe it is just a routine courtesy to apologize and he *does* apologize to customers often without...