"Why? It's not because he's Hispanic, is it? You're not racist, are you?"
Did this really happen? that made me chuckle a little bit.
I share this sentiment of yours a bit as well of not wanting to be waited on and this is especially for things that I can definitely do for myself. There is this pub that I frequent and it is a place where unless it is a cocktail or something that requires measuring, it is expected of you to serve yourself from the fridge. I like this place.
Another thing about me as far as waiting is concerned and not exactly what you are talking about is making people wait on you, even if it is their job to do exactly that. A lot of things get delivered over here in Vietnam and I am always one of those people that is watching the app, seeing how close the car or bike is to my house so that I can already be downstairs when the dude (it's almost always a dude) arrives. I have friends who live in this same building that just go about their day and don't even think about meeting the delivery person downstairs until after he calls them. They never even look at the app that is designed to help you know when to go downstairs before the guy arrives.
I just can't ID with that sort of uncaring attitude of "it's his job, he can friggin wait... he has to"
It's just inconsiderate and elitist, ya know?
One person I am thinking of also makes us, people who definitely do NOT work for him, wait whenever we are all sharing a taxi to something like the bowling alley. He is ALWAYS late and I know that he doesn't need to be. IT's not like he is a captain of industry and couldn't possibly sneak away to be there on time.
Anyway, I am rambling now but I get what you mean in what you said above and I think it shows that you are a kind and compassionate person... and this is a very good quality for a human to have.
I'd want to be there for the delivery people, too. I try to meet the Amazon delivery driver in the driveway whenever they bring something; it just seems polite, and then they don't need to puzzle over which door to leave the package at.
At work, we have a postman pick up the outgoing packages every day; sometimes there's four or five heavy sacks. And sometimes the postman is this petite Chinese woman who is 4'10" and weighs maybe 95 lbs. I used to help her carry the bags out to the truck but she started to get offended. "You think I not able to lift this?" So now I just leave her to it, but it still makes me uncomfortable!
I can certainly relate to tiny Asian women that don't want help. The cleaners in my building are tiny Vietnamese women who are often carrying stuff that looks too big for them but then shoo you away if you try to help. Maybe they find it patronizing because yes, they are capable of carrying stuff. I once tried to help them with a sofa in a stairwell and they were just like "no no, we got this." haha