Nature of Incident

In-person harrassment, slurs or threats of violence

++Warning: Contains Exact quotes of offensive language++

On sat the 17th of March I am in the back of a large coorporate resturant chain doing dishes. Jen is roughly 4 ft away filling mop water. J comes back talking about something I didn't catch the whole of but it ended with "Fucking worthless lazy niggers." He said that if they weren't white they were worthless lazy niggers. Stupid of me, I know, but to see how far his racism reached I said, "So, If a hot asian woman were all over you, you wouldn't have anything to do with it?" and his response was "If it aint white my dick aint goin' near it. Their worthless fucking niggers." In every line he spoke was that phrase "fucking, worthless lazy niggers" It made me mad because I had plenty of black friends and would probably still make me mad if I didn't. To stand up for my friends I started to tell him about one in particular I have good respect for even though I haven't seen him in a decade. I had his name and image in my mind as I started to tell him. Jason Guinn, (don't know if I spelled it right.) "I have a black buddy…" I started, but J had to interupt me. "Fucking, worthless lazy nigger, buddy." He said, and that infuriated me, but I was going to finish my point, wich was indeed fact, "who could work cirlces around you anyday." Jen stood with her hands clasped around the mops handle, and her jaw dropped. That sent J off. He wasn't yelling but his voice raised in volume he said. "your just a fucking worthless lazy kike," (a word I didn't think I would even ever hear) "nobody cares what you think!" Now ready to tear the boy in half I kept my voice calm and stayed away from personal insults and the all out violence I felt bubble up in my stomach. "I think that's a small minded and ignorant opinion." I said flatly. That made him angrier and he said I shouldn't make him angry. an empty threat I know. That's all I put in the report I gave to the general manager, It contained what I thought was important and would resolve the issue. but more happened. He said "you just need to turn your fucking philthy kike ass around and do those dishes!" It was very humiliating. I said "your not my boss." childish, but in my shock (the whole conversation, realy was a shock,) It was the only thing I could think to say.

I wasn't going to "rat him out" but after I got home it just continued to eat at me. I took my family out to eat, and looking at my children I couldn't help but think about them when they start work. Would their first job be in this neighborhood? would some one call them these names? I decided I would report it, and so I did that wednsday, and it still hasn't stopped eating at me.

The GM ken confirmed with Jen that what I had written was true, and it is, I stand on a rock of truth. He approached me at work about it and said that Jen didn't want to tell him, but he got her to. But then it started to get very odd. Now I'm from GA. and anywhere I worked had a zero tolerance for racial harrassment or degradation or discrimination, so I expected that J would be fired now and I would be done with my humiliation and have ensured a non hostile work environment for myself and everyone I worked with… my friends… or so I thought they were at that time at least. Ken then like he was talking to himself said he might have to write me up for provoking J. In these plain letters you can not see the wave of surprise and anger and more humiliation I felt then and continue to feel. He then said "but, you said he was saying all that before you called him small minded." which I never actually did, in fact while it is not a direct quote I said RACISM is a small minded and ignorant point of view. something that is indeed a fact, it is born of fear and jealosy and even sometimes to be used as a weapon to divide peoples to make them more complicit to authority. I took this as a light "don't rock my boat" threat. As if minimum wage was worth this.

Now the next weekend comes, and when I enter work only J's mother greets me coming in, and that is different from everyone smiling at me and saying hi as it was before this. J is still working there and ken has left me on a shift where I work with J, the guy I thought I wouldn't have to deal with anymore, and I am held accountable by his mother Sally. I tried to avoid any contact with J, who had told people at work how he was going to knock me out like we were in high school and he was the big man on campus, and he laughed and talked with all the people I thought were my friends, who no longer laughed and talked with me. Close to the end of the night Sally asked me to do some dishes. (wich isn't unnusuall accept now I thought… did she know those last words that J had spoken to me? Did he learn this hate from her? Was this to humiliate me more, some form of domination practice? Not knowing for certain if that were the case I smiled. "sure" I said, and went to do the dishes. When I did J came back there throwing dishes into the sink and gloating, about how all he got was a talking to. What do you do? At the end of my shift I went home, I haven't gone back or talked to anyone there not even to get my paycheck, wich is still there.

I want it mandated that they must institute a zero tolerance to racism policy with a training video to make certain every manager is equipped to deal with this scenario in the future, and every racist that gets a job knows that if they degrade others based on their race or heritage theyv'e lost that job. If I cannot sue for this or better, or get a settlement for this or better, I intend to take my rock of truth, the one I stand on and show it to the world, and every minority rights group and newsgroup that will listen, because in today's day and age, When a black man is president, this should never happen to me or anyone else, and I want it to hurt enough for the company to remember that.

I don't think it's important myself, but I'm certain it is important to others that I am not black or hispanic or even realy a jew. My mother is of Israeli decent, and you wouldn't know it to look at me, and I never bring it up. I don't know how this guy knew, maybe my brother (who also works there) was talking about it and some one overheard. To me it is irrelevant. The only action I'm ashamed of is my inaction. So much of me feels like I should have laid him out, I am a big bald guy, and instead of taking my family out to dinner that night I would have been eating in jail had I done that. (still feel like I should have.)

** I have since talked to the witness who said that she was blown away by the incident and how it was handled. She said she would be proud to do the right thing and back me up. (The manager had told me he had to twist her arm to get her to tell him what happened.)