Just logged on for the second time today. The first thing that caught my eye was “Are You Racist?” by The Fat Lady Sings. Gave that diary a quick read, and am now angrier than I was earlier about a friend’s experience today.
My friend is from Africa. (She has not lived in the US long enough to become a citizen.) In addition to being a wife and mother, she is also looking for employment. She obtained an application at one of the local dollar stores at the other end of town, and asked me to drive her there so she could return the application. We both walked in, and she asked the person at the register if the manager was available, as my friend really needs the job.
We were told that the manager was unavailable, despite being told that was not the case earlier. My friend then asked for the number of the store, so she could call back to inquire about employment.
The person “working” actually said, “I don’t know the number here.”
(Yeah, right!)
The whole thing has really upset me. I mean, I know I have the tendency to give people the benefit of the doubt in situations, but that was beyond ridiculous. Especially since the employee did not realize that we were together and treated me courteously, as if I was a “real” customer.
continued
I had previously planned to diary about some of my experiences re: the characters that I have encountered when I lived in Southwest Detroit. Ironically between Corktown–originally settled by the Irish and Mexicantown–an area of Detroit w/a Hispanic population.
I absolutely do not care if a person has a different racial/ethnic background. And, for the life of me, I have a difficult time understanding why race/ethnicity is such a big deal to some. I have always felt that it is necessary to respect and appreciate each other. We are not in this alone…
Guess I was hoping that I could just have a few laughs about the past tonite. On top of the nuttiness that has been going on in my life, witnesssing this experience fell into the wtf? category.
