Blog Post #9

One time that I witnessed racial injustice was a time that I had gone to a Verizon store in Warwick.

I would not necessarily call it racial injustice.

A few years ago, my mom and I went to a Verizon store in Warwick. It was near the busy holiday season and as we were sitting waiting for someone to help us, there was a white woman and her daughter sitting across from us, also waiting for someone to help them. 

An associate, who happened to be of color, came out to help the woman and her daughter. The look on the woman's face instantly changed when she realized that he was going to be helping her. Before all of this happen, this same associate checked my mom and I and got us on the waiting list. He was extremely friendly and professional. 

I was not entirely sure what the woman was trying to do, but it seemed like someone that the associate did not have much control over. This woman, instantly got upset and started speaking to him with a nasty attitude, rolling her eyes, talking under her breath and other things. He was trying to remind as calm as possible and explained things in a million ways, he tried to be nice and you can just tell by the look on his face, that he was overwhelmed and embarrassed by the nasty attitude this lady had.

After about 10 minutes of her and the associate going back and forth, she started to get loud and by now, the store was just paying attention to them to figure out what was going. The associate gave up and when and got a manager because this woman was being outrageous. 

When he went back to get the manager, I leaned into my mom and whispered: "I bet you that the manager is white and her attitude is going to change once they come out". Sure enough, I was right. the manager was this short, blonde, green eyes man. He went over to the woman and had some small talk, asked her what was going on. She complained that the associate did not know what he was doing or what he was talking about. She explained to the manager what she needed, and the manager told her the SAME EXACT THING THAT THE ASSOCIATE DID!! 

The manager explained things to her and she had calmed down, she was super friendly to the manager, she told him she understood and went on with her day. At this point, I was frustrated because it was clear that this woman was so rude and mean to the associate because he was black!! The manager did not even acknowledge the situation and my mom and I were not the only ones that noticed that this woman was racist. Other customers and even employees in the store, were whispering to each other, how rude and racist the woman was. When the situation was under control and the lady left, I asked to speak to that same manager. My mom and I immediately told him how rude and racist that woman was being and that the associate was extremely polite and professional and literally did not do or say anything wrong to her. He said he understood and that he was mad that, that happened, but he did not even do anything to make the woman understand that she was wrong.

After the incident had happened, my mother and I personally went up to the associate and we apologized to him, for having to go through that awful experience. We conversed a little with him and we told him how great he was and he did not deserve that.

This just makes me think about how in some states, racial injustice is much more common and worse than what I witnessed that day. In some states there are still things like segregrated proms and schools. It is sad that we are in 2018 and these things are still going on. I feel like in a way history does repeat itself.