My People and Customer Service...WHY???

On Monday, I went into Subway on 53rd for my usual, a veggie delight on honey oat bread with spicy mustard....yum!! It was the lunch hour rush and I was in line behind a young white man who appeared to be about 19-25 years old.

He ordered the daily special, which on a Monday is either a ham or turkey or some combination of the two sandwhich. I long since stopped eating meat so, I didn't pay too much attention to the actual details of his sandwhich. Well, when the young white man arrived at the register to pay for his sandwhich, the cashier, an older black woman (very common at Subways in the area), about 40-50 years old, asked him what kind of sandwhich he ordered. I sensed a twinge of attitude in her voice, but nothing alarming...just yet!

The young white man told her that he ordered the daily special and asked her to add on a bag of chips and a drink with his sandwhich. Well, the older black woman got seriously upset. She explained to him just short of rollin' her eyes and poppin' her neck that the chips and the drink were not apart of the special. Now, for those of you that don't know, here in the Chi, and I suspect across the country since Subway is a popular chain, Monday thru Friday they offer a selected sandwhich for $2.49. However, no where in the advertisements taped to the windows and the walls does is state that you can't add the chips and a drink for a $1.50 as you would normally be able to when you order these sandwhiches at the regular price.

Well, the young white man responded to her, isn't it just a $1.50 more to add the chips and a drink. Now, even more frustrated, yet with a hint of...I'm gonna ring up this fool's order and not even argue about it (as if she was doing him a favor) she rung up his order. However, while ringing up his order, she was commenting under her breath (now yall know how we do...under our breath, but loud of enough for everybody to hear us...right) "I tell you about these folks, always trying to..." and I didn't hear the rest of her comments. I was too busy trying to figure out what happened in that span of five minutes.

Needless to say that whole exchange blew me away. This young white man's face looked expressionless. He didn't respond to her attitude in any way, which was shocking to me, but thats a whole other story. Me on the other hand, I was prepared for her to try to handle me...sistah woman would have had a another thing coming. I ain't neva scared!!!! I will act a fool when I have to!

But anyways, I thought for the rest of the day that I had clearly missed something. I thought surely there had to have been some prior beef between the two that would cause such an altercation, but really...who would keep patronizing the same place if that was the case? I thought...maybe she was having a bad day, but that wasn't his fault. Then I thought...she must hate her job, but then again, that ain't his fault either, at least not literally!

I began to think back to the many experiences I've had over the past two months where I was shocked behind the kind of treatment I received. Its been the same across the board, at my neighborhood grocery store, the post office, the dmv, Target and everywhere else I've gone and encountered my people working on the frontline...providing customer service!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that every black person working in a customer service position is rude, nor has every experience I've had in the past couple of months been bad, but a large percentage of those experiences have been displeasing.

I know that working in customer service is not an easy job. As a former Kmart Sales Associate and a current Box Office Associate for a theatre, I understand that sometimes customers can be hard to deal with; and if you work in Skokie, Illinois then you know 98% of the customers are extremely difficult to deal with. However, what accounts for the experiences like the one I noted above?

In these times of heightened economic depression and political strife, I definitely understand even more the plight of black folks in low wage service industries. Black folks and other people of color are under attack with limited resources to fight back! And I certainly don't mean to state this as if somehow I come from a different class of Black people. However, I recognize the way in which I've had opportunities open to me that are not open to others like me. It's not everyday that the black girl from a single parent, immigrant home with little resources, gets to attend some of the better and more expensive private schools in the country. So I'm simply saying that, I've been privy to a certain level of privilege not shared by all. Its a level of privilege that means I'm not limited to low wage service industry positions.

However, while one part of me understands the anger displayed by my folks who are not only working on the frontlines, but also experiencing life on the frontlines, another part of me feels that we still need to put our best foot forward in every situation. Maybe this thinking is just the old school teachings ingrained in my head by mother, a woman who knows hard work and claims that she will work until the day that she dies, if she can; but I've found it to be a useful lesson to live by. It is a lesson that I believe holds true regardless of your positioning on the battlefield.

-M