Wednesday, April 21, 2010

I am brown.. and I am proud of that.

When you work at a convenience store, you encounter people from all walks of life. And people, in need of alcohol, will do anything for free stuff. Yes they could be racists too..
So here I was doing regular work. It was just another day at work. Nothing out of the blue. And in walks this guy who buys a whole lot of beer and some cigarettes. Turns out he has 3 credit cards and there is not even a single dime on any of those cards. He insists that I keep trying to swipe the cards again, as if my swiping them again will regenerate money in his account!
Nevertheless he asks me to hold his stuff for him and he goes to the bank next door to extract money from the ATM. Comes in 5 minutes later and says if I could give the goods to him on credit.

I, of course, politely refuse saying that it is not our policy to give goods on credit. And his exact words were, " What?! Is this India or something? I have taken goods on credit from here before." And I realized all of a sudden that my blood was boiling. Ears perked up at the mention of India from his mouth. And I managed to keep my calm and asked him, "Well what does India have to do with this?" And he has the f%$@#$% guts to say that, " Well if it was India you wouldn't give out goods on credit. After all it is a matter of trust. This is America. There is no question of that sort."
And the next words out of my mouth while pointing towards the door were, " Thank you. Have a good night."
I am amazed because of 2 things:
Firstly, I managed to keep my calm even in the midst of all the blood boiling going on in my body.
And secondly, I was amazed that people in 21st century still believe in borders and racism! We talk about being a global citizen, and being technologically so advanced that there is a world without borders. How can one do that when such things still happen in this day and age!
I wish I could have just told that so-called white guy that had it been an Indian I would have trusted him/her fully and given her the goods. But just because it was a dumb American, I held back because I don't really have any trust or interest in you!
May he rest in pieces!

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