I rant and rave on here a lot about silly stuff, but I got to get serious for a minute (yes from time to time I might say some real shit so if you dont want your bubble burst then move down to the cat photo or the chick twerkin in her bedroom when her dad bursts in below). Lately Ive been doing something I have a strict rule not to do: Reading comments on news articles. Now with all thats going on in Ferguson and police brutality the biggest thing I see in these comments is people who honestly think that racism is non existent in this country or any other country so let me tell you something that I personally have to deal with. As many of you know I am the Supervisor of the Geek Squad at the Best Buy here. That means I manage employees and am responsible for goals etc. They trust me with company numbers and secrets. I am responsible for the growth of my part of the business and even though you may not think it it is a damn demanding job. Now when I am at Best Buy I am not required to be on the sales floor and sell, but I am not a dick so from time to time I go and help out. Now many a time I walk up to a customer in the store and ask them if they need help and sometimes I get the Im just looking and if they are really a dick I dont get any response at all. Some of these people may not hear me and some of them have other motives, because I have watched other employees who are white go up to them not even minutes later and ask them if they need help and they open up like a book about their technology woes. That is example one. Example two: Being a leadership member in the store I often have to deal with angry customers. Now you cant imagine the looks on some peoples faces when they ask to speak to a manger and they see me. I have been yelled at, insulted, and threatened and almost always they ask to speak to the store manager if it is something really bad. I get the store manager who is white man and when he comes over to talk to them the tone immediately changes. The anger and frustration is still there, but there is one element that was missing from their conversation with me. Respect. They talk to him in a much more respectful manner than they did to me not less than a minute earlier. I am in no way making this a blanket statement and saying that Oh, all of these people are racist, but you always get a gut feeling that even though they may not even realize it they are being incredibly unfair. Now you can sit here and ask me how often this happens. A few times a month? A few times a week? No. EVERY DAY THAT I GO TO WORK. Yes, thats right you heard me. Every single day I step in that building I have to deal with that. So if you think that racism is being blown out of proportion or that it has gotten better then you are so very very wrong. I have just gotten much better at handling it and letting it roll off of my shoulders and that goes for me and anyone else who has felt discriminated on their day to day. White, black, or anything else. Educate and communicate.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 02:28:10 +0000
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