To start off with, I feel it is important to establish that I am a white, middle-class male working as a cashier to help pay for College. I have been raised in suburbia for most of my life, and as such have been rather safe (at least at home.)
Up until reaching maturity and having to work/experience the real world with only myself to guide me, I've never had an inclination to think about race, at all. It just did not factor and merely saw everyone as individuals.
This experience took place at work.
Prior to the event, I worked a 1:30-11:00 shift. As a young male, I am often prompt to bitch work at my job. Before it slowed down a bit in the evening, I spent most of the day in the 100+ Texas summer heat pushing carts outside back into the store. We have no machines to help, just a rope and a hook, and we go uphill. You have to move constantly just to stay even with what customers naturally use and take-out, so it is very physically demanding.
After quite a few hours of that, and a few inside actually cashiering, I was quite tired and worn out.
The event takes place at 9:55. We close at 10:00, and the last hour is spent on closing duties. I was currently helping a black woman. Being that it was a busy day, and nearing the end, I was not very talkative. I asked her paper or plastic, told her her total, handed her the receipt and told her to have a nice day. I glanced up at the next customer, saw that she, a white woman, was wearing a 80s Ninja Turtle T-Shirt, and asked her when she walked up to me, "So what's your favorite Turtle?" before the black woman was out of ear-shot.
Twenty minutes later, whilst closing down the store, the closing manager approaches me. He asked me if I had a minute, and due to the look on his face, and retail being retail, I asked him if a customer had complained about me.
He told me that the black woman had called and complained about me. He said that I had ignored her, was rude and short with her, was not wearing a nametag (a legitimate complaint, I wasn't) and felt that I was, and I quote this, "Racially Violating her" for my improved mood when talking to the white woman behind her.
Race was furthest from the issue. I was tired and not talkative, and only perked up because the next customer had noticeably an interest I shared, Ninja Turtles.
I am rather pissed off at this, because it seems to me, at least in Middle Class America, that race, and racism itself, is only brought up and used when directed at others, accusing any slight they received at them being originated from some kind of racist gesture.
In my case, I feel like the woman is trying to secure some kind of compensation from my store to make up for my "racist act" earlier, and I just happen to me the sacrificial pig between her and goodies.
I'm not saying that racism is totally eliminated from the world, especially say in the Balkan Peninsula or the Middle East, but in my day to day life the only racism I've encountered has been towards myself or a peer, stating that we were by the mere fact that we are white and happen to unintentionally insult someone who is not.
So how about you all? How do you feel about that story? Think my reasoning behind her accusation is true? Think she had the right to feel that way? Any experiences or thoughts you have with racism? Think it's dead in the US or not? Etc...etc....
Up until reaching maturity and having to work/experience the real world with only myself to guide me, I've never had an inclination to think about race, at all. It just did not factor and merely saw everyone as individuals.
This experience took place at work.
Prior to the event, I worked a 1:30-11:00 shift. As a young male, I am often prompt to bitch work at my job. Before it slowed down a bit in the evening, I spent most of the day in the 100+ Texas summer heat pushing carts outside back into the store. We have no machines to help, just a rope and a hook, and we go uphill. You have to move constantly just to stay even with what customers naturally use and take-out, so it is very physically demanding.
After quite a few hours of that, and a few inside actually cashiering, I was quite tired and worn out.
The event takes place at 9:55. We close at 10:00, and the last hour is spent on closing duties. I was currently helping a black woman. Being that it was a busy day, and nearing the end, I was not very talkative. I asked her paper or plastic, told her her total, handed her the receipt and told her to have a nice day. I glanced up at the next customer, saw that she, a white woman, was wearing a 80s Ninja Turtle T-Shirt, and asked her when she walked up to me, "So what's your favorite Turtle?" before the black woman was out of ear-shot.
Twenty minutes later, whilst closing down the store, the closing manager approaches me. He asked me if I had a minute, and due to the look on his face, and retail being retail, I asked him if a customer had complained about me.
He told me that the black woman had called and complained about me. He said that I had ignored her, was rude and short with her, was not wearing a nametag (a legitimate complaint, I wasn't) and felt that I was, and I quote this, "Racially Violating her" for my improved mood when talking to the white woman behind her.
Race was furthest from the issue. I was tired and not talkative, and only perked up because the next customer had noticeably an interest I shared, Ninja Turtles.
I am rather pissed off at this, because it seems to me, at least in Middle Class America, that race, and racism itself, is only brought up and used when directed at others, accusing any slight they received at them being originated from some kind of racist gesture.
In my case, I feel like the woman is trying to secure some kind of compensation from my store to make up for my "racist act" earlier, and I just happen to me the sacrificial pig between her and goodies.
I'm not saying that racism is totally eliminated from the world, especially say in the Balkan Peninsula or the Middle East, but in my day to day life the only racism I've encountered has been towards myself or a peer, stating that we were by the mere fact that we are white and happen to unintentionally insult someone who is not.
So how about you all? How do you feel about that story? Think my reasoning behind her accusation is true? Think she had the right to feel that way? Any experiences or thoughts you have with racism? Think it's dead in the US or not? Etc...etc....
