[QUOTE=Wheelz;12741197In your own OP, you called out Metro employees for being, among other things, racist. (This was after saying that it should have been obvious that you are an honest person because you’re not a “hood rat,” which I’m sure has no racial connotations at all.)
When somebody asked why your experience had anything to do with racism, a charge you explicitly made in your OP, you said the Metro is a “racist community” because: a)most of the employees are black, and b)once, you overheard a black employee say “That’s what I hate about white people.” Once. That’s the only “example” you have given.
Now, some may claim that the above reflects poorly on your own views regarding race. Granted, that point may be open for debate, but to say:
is patently ridiculous.
[/QUOTE]
As is usual for the SDMB community, you’ve taken something I said, decided to add connotations to it, considered that I might have meant those connotations as well, then decided that I do in fact have those connotations. You’ve made several jumps to conclusions there and didn’t even realize it.
“Hood Rat” does not have racist connotations. Now you’re all going to go “Hah! Yeah, I bet. :rolleyes:” no matter what I say, so I’m not going to waste the effort.
I also gave more than one example. I didn’t even tell you about the time my friend threw something away, which pissed off one of the cleaners, who then called my friend “rich boy”, which made no sense in context. Judging from his appearance and description of the events, I’m going to go with “rich”=“white”. But you don’t have to believe me about that either.
Incidentally, (is anyone still listening?) I had a conversation with a Metro employee last night while waiting for my train. I told him what happened and he said that PTJ was probably carrying over something from earlier that pissed him off. In other words, I caught him in a bad mood. Why? Either another customer had pissed him off, or he just found out he has to work a double that day. Turns out, someone called in sick at that station and they were having trouble finding someone to fill in. Jamal’s boss might have just told him he has to work a 16-hour shift.
I asked him what he would have done, as a station manager, if he had been Jamal. He said you usually just fix the card. There are tons of broken things, he said, every day. He helps hundreds (exaggerating?) of people a day. You just fix the card and move on. Happens all day, every day.
That’s when I asked him about racism in the system. As soon as the word ‘racism’ left my lips, my train pulled in.
Me - “…racism…”
Him - “…well…[pause]”
Me - “Hate to drop that bomb and run, but I gotta go!”
Him - “OK, cya.”
I guess I’ll ask someone else later what they think. I humbly await all the posters who will now show up to call me a liar.