5/05/2008

Racism Has Many Forms

I am pretty irritated. I guess not eating lunch and going to the post office never mixes well. I would blame myself but there was a real piece of work behind the desk who barely glanced at me when I asked for a flat rate box.

"We don't have a flat rate box," she looked down at some papers and tape and refused to look at me.

"Ok," I looked at her. She would not look at me. Some people in line looked at me shaking their heads.

"We have flat rate boxes!" another postal worker cried out, overhearing my exchange. "They are over here," she said, pointing, "in the back. We walk by it."

"As far as I was concerned, we didn't have them," she said lazily, not bothering to look at me, treating me like crap.

"Well, can I have one?" I asked.

She looked unwilling to move. In fact, she sort of winced down into her papers and tape.

"I'll get it," the other lady hollered.

"No, I will," my mean lady said.

I almost blurted out that I would rather the other lady get it since she seemed helpful, but I didn't, I just waited.

"We have these ones. The ones without the tape," she said, handing me one.

My mean lady barely looked at me. Well, she didn't.

"Can you give me some tape?" I asked, since the one I wanted (with the tape provided was not available).

The mean lady shook her head. "We don't provide tape to the customer." She gave a snotty look.

I almost reached over and smacked her.

It was all body language too. She acted like I was scum. She would barely look at me, roll her eyes, not even move to help at all. I guess she is racist. That is the only thing that makes sense. A bad day does not cut it at all. It looked to me that she did not like the look of me and she had no intention of getting me a box even though she knew there were some. Her answer was a little too quick for my taste.

8 comments:

Todd said...

Typical government employee. I doubt it's racism though, just good old fashioned laziness. You should have demanded to speak with her supervisor. I would suggest you look up the Post Office telephone number, call the supervisor and relate your story.

It probably will not help, but you will feel better!

R said...

Had to be there. Still think she's racist. And lazy.

I am well-acquainted with lazy government workers, so I know when they are plagued with both racism and laziness. I was so pissed off I could hardly stand up straight----and I am not usually like that!

I guess I could complain, but I don't know the lady's name and they all act dumb over there. No one does anything about anything.

Doozie said...

She's totally racist against hot white girls. I've seen plenty of postal workers helping people tape their boxes. It varies from one post office to the other though. Next time take the accordion fist with you and just smack her in the jack johnson, then act like you didn't do it

Whistle Britches said...

I agree with Leslie Nielsen.

I've made more customer complaints this year than I ever have before.
I've had it up to here with rude people.

Gen said...

I don't even go to the post office anymore. :-P We have a nice privatized business down the road that mails packages, and they are really helpful. Tape is always included. :-)

Anonymous said...

This is not necessarily an issue of racism. It is just an incompetent worker. The fact that another worker was "listening in" and offered to help means this employee has probably pulled these tricks before and has to be monitored. Racism is so over-used in our culture and needs more "proof" than just rudeness to be supported. One should be careful throwing the term around.

To prove racism, you would have to stick around for 3 hours and watch to see if she was "nice" to those of her race and "mean" to those of other races. Then you'd have a case.

Often, our own racist tendancies seem to come out when we are mistreated, so this may be an issue that you have, not her.

R said...

Anon--I agree that racism is over used in our culture. I still think I am right in this case. That is the only thing that made sense at least to me and I am ok with that.

It may not even be the color of my skin, it could be just what I look like, how I present myself. Maybe the chick just didn't like ME.

And that is ok too.

Suzy-Q said...

are you an anti-postite??haha