I’m currently living and working in a burgeoning cow town in Florida called Okeechobee. I work at a liquor store. ABC Liquor, precisely. I just recently moved here from New Hampshire, taking a semester off from college to relax and enjoy the hurricanes until school again in the Fall. I find the differences in culture interesting and stimulating. People down here are a lot less uptight. They’re friendlier. They’re a lot more likely to say what’s on their mind. There’s a lot more racism. There are also a lot more idiots and people with low IQs. I wonder why that is. I think whites are a majority in Okeechobee, but there are also a lot of blacks and Hispanics (lots of illegals – in fact, I live in a trailer park teeming with illegals) and together they probably outnumber whites. I work with all white people. It’s weird, because the people I work with are actually very smart and fun people to be around. None of my coworkers are racists. In fact, my manager is married to a black guy and another coworker has a black girlfriend. Technically, there is one racist, but he is a closet racist. He keeps it to himself. Black people even like him, though he calls them niggers behind their backs. Personally, I’m a very nice guy in the real world. And I try to treat everybody the same – and I believe I do a good job at it. I don’t let my behavior hint of discrimination at all, racial or otherwise. I don’t give any indication other than that of a wholesome, good-doing, god fearing Christian. I’m 6 feet tall, have blond hair, blue eyes and of apparent good stock. Judging from the responses from women, I’m good looking. And yet black people hate me. I get hassled nearly everyday by black people; actively discriminated against. It’s usually something incomprehensibly asinine – to the point that I’m almost laughing in their faces. Like, one customer I dealt with told me he didn’t like the way I “snatched his money.” I actually didn’t quite understand what he was saying because I’m used to people enunciating their words. Much to my amazement, my coworker was able to tokenize his stream of vowels and translate to me that black people hate me. Oh. Yesterday a black woman came in to get some Cruzan. I rang it up and then put down the credit card receipt with pen on the counter for her to sign – exactly as I do with every other customer who pays credit. She loudly explains that it was very rude of me to “throw the pen and receipt” at her. She’s apparently not done being an irrational sow. She goes on and basically repeats what she already said about 4 times in a few different ways and then adds, “…because I know you don’t want to touch me.” I was a bit stunned at her unfortunate and yet hilarious confluence of audacity and low IQ revealing itself so completely and shamelessly. I think she wanted me to apologize and explain that I didn’t mean for it to be taken that way and that I was indeed, not a racist – in other words, apologize for being white. So I pretended like I didn’t hear any of it. I took her stub, handed her the receipt, gave her a condescending smile and a “Have a nice day.” My coworker was stunned at the exchange. He told me I’m too aryan. And for that, I’m not going to apologize to anyone. I don’t get it. I treat them the same as everybody else. I don’t have the same problem with the Mexican customers. They’re actually quite amiable and of typically happy dispositions. I might be giving a slightly inaccurate idea of how it happens. Actually, most of the blacks that come in are cool and I have no problems with and I can actually joke around with them. In fact, a black woman even asked me out one time. But I still get hassled with stupid petty racist bullshit by them on a nearly daily basis – which I don’t get from any other people. Should I treat them better than the other customers so they don’t do this? Should I have my coworkers ring up black customers? I’m at a loss here.
My friend, Many people experience negative energies emanating from other lifeforms. You must not allow yourself to feel responsible for their insolence. I speak as someone who is of east indian descent when I tell you that it is not because you are white and "good-looking" that they treat you with reluctance, although that catalyses it. But it is also because of the state of their existence and community that they feel the *need* to dispell their negative energy in your direction. You must only let it pass through you, then "quick heal" and move on. They however, are also people in need of healing. When a person is content with themselves and life, they tend to be more tolerant. Tolerance is proportional to content. The human thing to do is to evolve on a personal level, and hope that the rest of humanity will evolve in time. Until then, you must not feel responsible for other human's shortcommings. Think of it as one of the mysteries of the human race like women are to men. The fact is that they are not a mystery, but we can call it that. Everyone strives and competes for respect. Anger is one tactice unhappy people use to gain respect from people like yourself who find it effortless. It is simply a case of bitterness.
It's probably because you're a fast-talking city dude. To the laid back yokels of Okeechobee, you're most likely coming across as an uptight bundle of energy. Throwing pens around with every moment. Snatching and grabbing with a flurry of impatience. Jabbering away in an almost incomprehensible dialect that sputters at them like the barking of a machine gun. Take some barbituates and see if conditions improve. Or quaaludes. Heroin would be the easiest thing to acquire, I suppose.
Understand that the majority of people you will encounter have irrational "core beliefs" which guide their behavior, and perhaps in so doing you will even identify some of your own (the social baggage of "white" and "black" for example). The short term vocational advice is "learn to flirt" (you'd be surprised how relaxing it is when you can connect with strangers/customers simply with a sincere "hun" or "dear" or "bro"). Your customers can be your friends if you'd only let them, and you are their facilitator; empower yourself to enjoy what you do; it's your world too, and you deserve to be relaxed and happy, on and off the job.
You know what I don't like about sob stories? They emanate negative energy. Ironic that we as a species are like that eh?
Such an ignorant generalization to insinuate. Only the scientific method of judgement is allowed here, not condemnation spawned from ignorance.
WTF?!?! Are you the dumbest person ever?? Also to the original post, it probably has something to do with the fact that you're from so far away. The way that you do things is naturally different, and the customers simply assume that you only act different toward them because they are black.
What do you guys want? Facts on black on black crime? Black on black rape? Blacks abandonment of their children? I can go on and on. Do you guys not see the way blacks treat each other?
What about White-on-White crime? White-on-White rape? Whites abandoning their children? Do you not see that there is little to no difference among the races in the way they treat each other and other races? Do you not also see that you are making way too general a statement? Stop trying to rationalize your racism. EDIT: Actually, if you have some statistics to provide, go ahead and provide them. It'll certainly be interesting.
I'm not sure what sort of response the original poster was expecting/hoping to recieve. Compassion, derision, pity, empathy? Maybe you should just move elsewhere if it bothers you that much. Otherwise no physical/mental (?) harm is being done so do what a "wholesome, good-doing, god fearing Christian" would do and turn the other cheek. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I still think this was posted to elicit some sort of response..
Makeshift, Post a photograph of yourself please. D'ster, There is a lot of truth in your generalisations, hence the strong reactions. Aside from their emotional provocation, they are basically axiomatic. Overall, Historically human beings will slit each other's throats as soon as say Hello. Hairless apes, really, only with evolutionarily advanced cruelty. The relative impotence of the UN and other cooperative/goodwill organisations to aggressive/violent/competitive ones is not merely an unlucky co-incidence. Makeshift (again), At least they aren't (yet) throwing their steaming feces at you, or poisoned spears.
Hecter: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! South: Advice. A solution, perhaps. Some insight maybe. But mainly I'm interested in results. I never said that's what I am. That's what I sell -- hardly what I am, although I can tell you with a fair amount of confidence that I'm more decent and worthy of trust than perhaps 90% of the people out there. Is there such thing as a thread that's not? qwerty: I don't flirt per se. Well, with some customers, it's hard not to Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! and flirting comes very naturally to me when talking to babes. But generally, I'm pretty outgoing with customers and often on a first-name basis. However, I think sometimes the black customers take my smile or laughs as "Hahaha, I'm better than you!" Or something. One time there was this skinny black dude that came in in a wife beater. He goes "Whooo!!" (because it's was about 100 degrees outside and 70 degrees in the store.) I shared with his enthusiasm, laughing, "Whooo!! Yeah! It's nice and cool in here!" Then he put on a solemn face and started muttering some incomprehensibles interspersed with "motherfucker" as he walked to the cooler to get beer. As came back he was like, "Motherfucker, calling me a Mexican." To which I replied, "Uh, sir, I didn't call you a Mexican." My other two coworkers backed me up and vouched for me. He replied, "Motherfucker, I know what I heard." Apparently he did not. Invert: Check, check and... check!
Thank-you. Perhaps you should try being solemn and apathetic (with the occasional grumble against your boss or the hours you work), since people of that class can more easily empathise with someone who seems to vigorously hate their job (as they themselves do). Misery loves company. Many proles are so insecure that they will interpret any sign of friendlessness as mockery, since they don't believe any young Aryan person could possibly be sincerely philanthropic in that kind of encounter (unless you are wearing a big 'Jesus Loves You' T-shirt. Drinking the Jesus Kool-aid is really the only reason for such outgoing interracial banter they can possibly comprehend). See how that works, and report back to us.
Agree with your adversary quickly I'd say. If they say, what you calling me a mexican motherfucker. Just shake your head no and say "Absolutely". If they want to know why you are throwing the pen and receipt at them, you should say, "Sorry, I was throwing it because of these spasms I get in my hand sometimes. Sorry about that. I have 3 months to live." If they flick you off, go ahead and flick yourself off with them.
Society seems to always manifest two main classes, the bourgeois and the proletariat. You, makeshift, appear to represent the proletariat and upper class type. This may or may not be interpretted as making a statement of contempt. On the surface, you seem to be not a bad looking, nice guy. The problem with people who don't express appreciation of others and an unshakable cynicism about evything is that they can be paranoid and untrustworthy as to your "true intentions". It is not strictly a black/white thing, but a black/black, white/white, rich/poor, employed/unemployed, happy/down thing equally. Even the greatest of us experience this, just look at Batman and his shaky friendship with Superman and other superheroes in one of my early threads, here: http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=47189. Anyway, that's just my interpretation going by personal experiences. I can't be 100% sure of what works for you and neither can anyone esle in this thread.
