Dealing with Racism on the Job

When you think racism you think of people watching you when you walk into a store because of your race or ethnicity thinking you are going to steal something. Cops pulling you over and asking a lot of inappropriate questions because you don't look like someone who would have enough money to afford that car. Being passed over for a job because you are who you are and the job was given to someone who doesn't deserve it but their "look" fits the image the company wants to portray. Going to the store and purchasing groceries and watching people look at you from behind to see if you are paying with food stamps or a debit card because, after all, you have on clothes that are not tattered and torn and a cell phone so of course you shouldn't have government assistance. All these scenario's, and so many more, spring to mind when someone uses the word however this is not what I'm referring to.

Customer service racism. When you call in to your service provider for cell phones, electricity, water, sewage, even insurance, what are you thinking? Chances are you are thinking, I need to figure out what's going on with my bill, I need new equipment, I want to see what deals they have on service, etc. Then you hear it. The call is picked up and its an African American woman on the line. You go from somewhat annoyed to completely annoyed in one second. Are you one of the ones who ask immediately for a supervisor and couch it in "it's not you it was the rep before and now I don't want to talk to you, just your supervisor."? I often wonder how many people truly react like that based off who answers. It doesn't even have to be an African American. It can be someone who is foreign and you  automatically deduce that you can't understand what they're saying before they get a chance to speak and request to speak to an "American".

These stereotypes help perpetuate the racism that still plagues the United States. One feels that they can sometimes escape the world at work so long as they don't have to deal with racism but there's nowhere to run when it follows you to your job.

I once had a customer like this. I had a few but this one stuck out to me the most. I was working for a very popular cell phone company and I was trying to figure a man's bill out. I was looking back a few months because I had a hunch he was due for a decent credit based off mistakes found in his current bills. He was impatient and rude, which is not out of the ordinary. However, as I asked him to have just a little more patience because it was going to pay off big time in the end he called me a nigger. He said that "my people" were worthless and that I was a cunt and a bitch. My supervisor was monitoring the call at the time and he sensed I was becoming distraught and stepped in to take over the call so I could go on an impromptu break and clear my mind. This man was not worrying about recuperating the money he called in to recuperate. Once he got me on the phone his whole reason for calling shifted to disrespecting and de-humanizing me because of who I was. It was upsetting but I guess I have become desensitized to the true effects those words should have on me and that's really a shame.

This certainly wasn't the last call I had ever had like that but it was definitely a first and I didn't know what to say because I couldn't believe someone could be so rude and heartless. The thing about racism is that its rarely ever about the person of race but more or less the way the person pressing the prejudices feel about themselves and their worth, adequacy. They feel like different is a bad thing and its best to shut out the differences to preserve this utopia they think they live in. Differences must be extinguished. America is a melting pot of many different ethnicities so its almost a must that you get along with most cultures or chances are you will be shut out of life and success much like you started out to do originally with different races. You are free to feel how you want to feel but the other part that most forget is that you also have the right to be condemned for what you freely choose.

Racism is a drain in our community and its still rampant. It could be your friends, parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, even children. You could live next door to someone who appears to be nice and enjoy shooting the occasional breeze with you in passing and they seem genuine. You ride off to work, answer the phone and give your greeting and first name. The person on the other line could be the very person you just spoke to on the way to work only now they see you as not a person, but an ethnicity that should go away. Think about it.