Hot Button

If the past week had a theme it would be 'Racial Sensitivity.'

The Imus debacle is well-known and doesn't warrant yet another discussion here. I could care less about an idiot's racial insensitivity or Media-World's racial over-sensitivity. I'm not quite sure the aforementioned event had anything to do with a pair of phone-calls my manager was forced to deal with during the past week, but the timing is coincidental at the very least.

This past Tuesday every employee at the store I work at was singled out and given a lecture. A lecture about customer service. More specifically, customer service of a racially charged nature. Recently, a young black woman called in to report that she had been mistreated while shopping, on three separate occassions no less, and had come to the conclusion these unpleasant experiences were racially motivated.

circumstance a) Customer uses a credit card to pay for her puchase. The clerk, a young white woman sees that the back of the credit card is not signed, and asks for ID. Our store is already going beyond the call of duty here. Credit Card law states that if the card is unsigned, we should refuse the purchase altogether. However, on the back of their card in place of a signature some people write in 'See I.D.' or purposely do not sign to encourage retailers to ask for indentification. This is means toward discouraging identity theft, an omnipresent danger. It is done for the customer's own good and is never a slight. When asked for her I.D. the young woman refused to comply, presumed the white cashier-girl was being racist by 'inferring' the card stolen. Customer paid with cash and left huffing and puffing.

circumstance b) Customer is purchasing books and the clerk, a young white man, engages her in conversation. Seeing what the customer is purchasing, Clerk suggests a few titles only to have the young woman explode with 'do you think I'd be interested in those books just because I'm Black?"

circumstance c) Customer is purchasing one book, a mass market paperback for less than $10. Customer pays for this with $100 bill. Our sister store has, as recently as two months ago, been burned by accepting a fake $100, which is easily prevented by holding the bill up to a light and revealing the water-mark. Clerk, a young white woman, does this, and the customer flies into a frenzy, claiming that this would not have been done if she was white.

Now I did not see any of these three circumstances directly, and can only infer that this woman was spoiling for a fight. My manager is seriously considering we stop checking IDs on unsigned cards or holding up $100 bills to find the watermark. And all because one person is so self-centered as to re-direct everything back at herself as a racially charged affront. The store cannot profit from these proposed changes.

And the week was not yet over.

On Thursday morning a colleague and i were listening to music, not quite out of the auditory range of browsing customers. My co-worker likes hip-hop, so i put on an album that just so happens to have some pretty horrible lyrics. Now I see certain 'aggressive' hip-hop as the musical equivalent of a horror film. Its certainly not for everyone, but its 'goal' or 'purpose' is to horrify and shouldn't be taken literally. half the time I don't even listen to the lyrics at all, and just hear particular beats. Perhaps this is irresponsible, and perhaps I've listened to the music so many times that the words 'no longer mean anything.' Yes, I'm a desensitized ugly american. Ugly or no, I seriously offended a young woman customer. She called later in the day to report she had been 'very uncomfortable' while shopping because of 'foul music.'

Of course i was an idiot to play something like this anywhere near a public place. It isn't for everyone. And the girl had every right to call in. And when my manager came back to tell us what happened, the dour man who rarely speaks above a whispered monotone, I was taken completely aback and blushed to the core of my being when he mumbled something about a customer being offended by music containing phrases like 'niggers fucking whores.' It was something I'd never imagined I'd ever hear come out of my boss' mouth. I never want to hear again. Now, the music in question is the same sort of stuff conservative news pundits are citing produce the phrases Imus was called out for using on air. The argument being, 'why, "they" call themselves this, the real problem lay in the cultural exploitation of the music corporations themselves, or the rappers in question, their hip-hop lifestyles, and so on and so forth.' First of all, using 'they' is never a good idea. Secondly, take a look at what is happening here. The responsibility is subtly shifted from individual to a certain section of the public sphere to society as a whole and thus any hope at effecting change is negated. because individuals can learn and change. It is much more difficult for a faceless and disparate society to do so.

The hard part of all this is just how muddled everything is. There are certainly some lessons to be learned, but by no means any cure-alls to the problems exposed. The charged atmosphere of race relations isn't going to fade away any time soon. And the media sure isn't helping matters. In the end I suppose the best we can do is just be ourselves. Hopefully enough of us are enlightened enough to not take everything so seriously. And yet at the same time understand other people's motivations and perceptions, know that everyone has a certain amount of cultural baggage, and treat everyone fairly. Here's hoping anyway.