Racism Over The Counter
On paper, racism is not permitted in the United States. It can be traced to the 4th of July 1776, when 13 colonies ruled by the Queen of England, broke away and formed a new country.
History students all over the world
know the preamble to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, but here is a
re-cap.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
They are created equal because
they are conceived the same way, grow in a woman’s body for almost a year and
are born the same way. Nature, being
perfect, keeps the umbilical cord of equality after birth, something we see in
daycare playgrounds or when two kids meet in public places. They don’t see black or white. They just toddle towards each other, little
arms stretched.
Some people don’t agree. They are entitled to their opinion but not on
paid hours. My belief that black people
are not human and therefore not entitled to basic rights like life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness should be under lock and key when I go to work. I should release them from captivity when I get
back home.
I am paid to serve customers and
bring in money. I am a liability to the
employer if I have a racism tenant in my mind, that prevents me from enjoying my
job because of hatred for black people.
On the 12th of April, a
Starbucks employee in Philadelphia called the police to arrest two black men
who were waiting for a friend. Melissa
DePino, a white customer saw the injustice, captured it on video and sent it
out to the world. That employee is no
longer with Starbucks.
At the end of May, ABC cancelled Roseanne
Barr’s television show Roseanne,
after her racist tweet about Muslims and Valerie Jarrett, a black advisor to former
U.S. President Barack Obama.
Barr’s supporters are waving the freedom of speech card, but
that works at the dinner table, not on the job, where someone pays me to deliver
a product or service, and not what I feel inside about a particular group of
people.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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