2004-11-07

Whatever happened to I Have a Dream?

I have always been extremely anti racism. If you know me well at all, you are already very well aware of this. People who act racist around me get put to shame. Should you display any symptoms of racism, I will embarrass you, chew you out, lecture you, and I make it crystal clear that I will not tolerate that kind of behavior in my presence. I am not like that about anything else, but if you ever say anything that sounds remotely racist around me, you'd better get ready, because it's about to be ugly. Even some of my relatives (to include my grandmothers) can testify to this. I really don't care who you are, I just won't put up with that kind of attitude.

In my senior year of high school, I went to homecoming with a black male friend of mine. When Holly, my best friend of mine (who was Korean and adopted by a white couple) heard I was planning on going with a black guy, she was shocked and outraged. She asked me how I could do that to my parents. Confused, I asked, "Do what?" "Go with a black guy to homecoming! Don't you care what people will think?!" I stopped talking to Holly shortly after that conversation took place. I really didn't care what people thought. I don't value the opinions of racist people, no matter what color their own skin is. My parents had always taught me that all races were equal, and they certainly had no objections to me having a black guy as my date for homecoming.

Recently, I have been a victim of racism. I work for two black couples in a predominantly and historically black neighborhood. Martin Luther King Jr. grew up down the street. The street I live on (Boulevard) is mentioned in two dozen rap songs. I am not bothered by any of these factors. However, apparently other people in the community are bothered by me. I have had customers who will be sweet as pie to my black coworkers, but will be outlandishly rude to me, not because of my attitude (which is usually very personable, friendly, helpful,and polite) but because I am a white girl. People have inquired as to why Javaology doesn't hire only black people, and have commented on customer surveys that they'd like to see more black people hired. There are only three white people on staff, all of which are females. There's me, the white redhead, a white blonde slightly younger than me, and an Italian woman in her thirties. There's also an Indian girl, but she's Indian, not white. If you really want to get technical, there's also a young mulatto woman that works there as well.

There's a middle aged to elderly black woman that Javaology has ordered an item of food from before. The other day she came in to the store, demanding to know where 'the boys' (the owners/managers) were. Both of 'the boys' were out at the time, and we let her know that. She breezed into the kitchen, started looking through things, all the while mumbling under her breath about how unhappy she was about something. I asked her if I could help her with anything, and she asked me where something was. The food item Javaology had ordered from them had not been selling, so it was kept in the back. Since it had not been selling, I had not had to deal with it, and therefore didn't know where it's accessories were. She was like, "You work here and you don't know where it is? Get out of my way, I'll find it myself!" This woman was extremely rude. No matter how polite I was to her or how helpful I tried to be, she treated me like I was the stupidest piece of shit she had ever come into contact with. She demanded that I get one of 'the boys' on the phone immediately (a coworker of mine, older than me, and who had been there longer than me that day told me not to, and to act like I was calling them and tell her I couldn't get either of them on the phone). I told her I had not been able to get either of them on the phone (my mistake; I should have just called and let them deal with her), and that they were off, spending time with their families, which they never do. She yelled at me that she'd been in the restaurant business for X amount of years and she knew that you should never leave your business with NOVICES THAT DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING. There was some internal bristling on my part. I was angry as well as insulted, because she was not speaking that way to any of the other staff members there at the time (who also did not know what was going on), just me. She left in a huff saying that she would call 'the boys' later. Indeed, she came into the shop later to complain to one of the managers about "that rude young white woman." Apparently she wasn't really upset about the situation, it was all about race, the fact that I was white. As you might have imagined, I was not happy to find this out. In fact, I was very upset. Treating me like that because I am white? I certainly wasn't rude. But because I'm white? Whatever happened to Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have A Dream ?

Yesterday a black woman came in and ordered a latte with fat free milk and a shot of vanilla syrup. Since she asked for fat free milk, I thought she might be health conscious and therefore might be interested in knowing we had sugar free vanilla syrup. As she and the cashier (a young black woman) were chatting, I politely said, "Excuse me ladies. Ma'am, did you want regular vanilla syrup or sugar free vanilla syrup with your fat free latte? The customer stopped chatting and looked at me with an ugly look on her face, and said, "I asked for a LATTE with FAT FREE MILK and VANILLA SYRUP!" I was trying to be helpful, and she was extremely rude. I wasn't deaf, I heard her order. I was just asking if she wanted the sugar free vanilla syrup or the regular calorie-ridden vanilla syrup. She was only ugly to me though, and continued her cheery conversation with my coworker, who was also surprised by the woman's rudeness. I was so angry! I hadn't said anything rude to the lady, and in fact was extremely friendly and polite. Why was she so rude?

Unfortunately that experience has not been singular. I have had a lot of customers come in, be extremely rude to me for no other reason than the fact that I'm white, and then be very pleasant to my black coworkers. Frankly, I'm tired of it. You would think that because of the way I have acted for years, karma would work itself out and I wouldn't be dealing with this sort of thing. A scary thought is that karma is preventing this from happening more than it already does. If I didn't love my managers (and my coworkers) and my job so much, (and if I weren't so anti establishment, as Morgan has pointed out), I would quit and work somewhere corporate in a predominantly white neighborhood where I could deal with yuppies all day. At least they try to hide their racism.

Yeccch.

That's my ranting for today. As this is my first actual day off in ten days, I am going to go enjoy it as much as possible. Looks like a pajama day to me! Good thing my adorable pajamas from mark. came in just in time!