Samuel experienced his first real encounter with racism recently. At the job he was working at, he was berated by his boss for talking back (he was trying to explain something that he did, but it was seen as back-talk). Some of his coworkers told him that he was mistreated because the white manager always talks differently to the minority employees. They told him that the best tactic is to simply agree to avoid conflict.
Samuel came home angry, but mostly confused. He told me that in his native country, people judge others based on where they are from or what family they are a part of, but not because of how they look. Plus, he told me that he thinks of me as his brother and I've never treated him differently simply because he's from Africa, so he just assumed that all people thought the same. That is to say, some people are good and others are bad, but you judge them by what's in their heart rather than the color of their skin. His bigoted boss was a real shock.
I am saddened that Samuel had to experience something as terrible as racism and that it took coming to the US to see it firsthand. However, the restaurant he was working at has closed down, so he won't have to deal with that pig-headed boss. Not only that, but he's already lined up his next job, this one run by a member of the ward, which almost certainly means that he won't see racism like he so recently did.
Again, I'm really disappointed that Samuel had to go through what he did, but I'm happy that I was able to be a good example and proof that just because one white person is a bigoted creep, not all of us are.
1 comment:
Samuel saw prejudice in his own country, but he saw it in a form that was familiar to him and was not based on skin color, but it was just as ugly as racism nonetheless. In Nigeria it matters a lot what tribe you come from. The tribal hate was strong enough that no one tribe would allow the language of another tribe to be designated the official language of Nigeria. So the language of the hated colonial overlords, English, was designated instead because everyone hated it equally. Racism is only more obvious because it is based on skin color, but prejudice exists everywhere.
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