Has anyone ever experienced racism?

KCJ506

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Either directly or indirectly? Felt displaced by the social environment, like you and your friend are the only black or white folks at a social event or like school?

The reason I'm asking this is because I believe that I am right now. Because well I've worked at this video store for almost 7 years now. And lately we've been struggling and because of this our labor has been cut. My boss being a jerk gives every one else hours and me nothing. Not even one day.

If we manage to get more labor he just gives all the hours to someone else instead. He'll give everyone else who works there five days and none for me at all. Even when somebody goes on vacation I can't get any. I haven't worked in almost two months now because of his selfishness. Just tonight I find out he's going on vacation and what you know? Other people get all the hours and I get nada. I'm so mad right now I can't even speak. When I ask him about why I can't get any he has an excuse each time.


And get this I'm the only black person that works there. So I find it a little funny that I'm the only one who gets the shaft. Heck I have more seniority than some of the other people there.
 

Ilikemuppets

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Hey, that a hard call to make, but it does sound suspicious and like something is up. But if you're unhappy with your job and have taken it up with the people in charge that you are, than maybe you should find somewhere else where you can get more hours. Of course it's not easy with this economy.
 

KCJ506

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I have looked for other jobs, but like you said it's not easy to find a good one with this economy. And I refuse to work in a fast food restaurant.

One time when I someone else went out of town I asked him about it and his excuse was everyone else's checks being low so he thought he would give them some more hours. I call shenanigans on this, because two of my co-workers always get almost 30 hours a week. Even with the cut labor. Sometimes more. So there's no way their checks could have been that low. It's like he feels sorry for everyone else not getting many hours, but he's not sorry for me not getting any at all. If I didn't know better I'd say he wanted me to just up and quit.

The holidays are coming up and it usually gets more busy around those times. There's not that many other people who work there and if I were to quit he would be up a creek. That'll be all on him though. If he were just to give me one day I week I would be fine.

I'm not the type of person to play the race card, but it's looking more and more like this is the issue. There's another black guy who usually goes off the school and comes back and he wouldn't give him hours either. Both me and him have worked there longer than three other people there.
 

MuppetsRule

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Do you have a particular incident of racism in mind? Or are you just looking for reasons you can't get extra hours? There could be other factors involved as to why you don't get extra hours. Are the others harder workers? Do they go out of their way to help customers and you don't? Not saying that you are a bad worker but just trying to point out that there could be many other factors. You say you have been there for 7 years. How about the others? If they have only been there a shorter period of time it stands to reason they are making less per hour. If the store is struggling giving the hours to somebody making less money makes a lot of sense.
 

Beauregard

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I wonder, have you ever found that you've been treated differently or badly before, having been there for 7 years, I'd have thought that if the boss was racist it would have come up before now?

That said, any kind of racism, ageism, or religious hatred really gets my goat and makes me furious...However, it can happen accidentally and having a word with the guy in charge may help, maybe pointing out your fears so you can be reassured that is not the case.

Peoples is peoples, no?
 

KCJ506

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I work just as hard as everyone else there. I've never once called in sick. There were times when I was sick and working and I refused to go home. I don't show up late all the time unlike one of my co-workers does. This particular co-worker used to be an assist manager, so she has to get a lot of hours, but now she's just a shift leader. It's still required for her to get hours. I can understand this.

Most of the time she can be pretty rude to customers. This is something I've never done in all my time there. She's pretty hypocritical too. If there's a line of customers instead of helping them she continues to work on a project or she'll just find an excuse to leave the counter. But if she helping someone and there's only one other person waiting she always wants us to stop what we're doing. Many people have complained about her.

The three other people who I have more seniority than have worked there for about three years now. They make less money I understand, but I don't think it'll kill him to give me one day. It's like an order for me to get one day everyone else has to get five, which isn't fair to me at all.

He can be very vindictive. He'll be nice to someone to their face and then talk about them behind their back. It makes me even madder when I find out he called someone else to come in. I can understand if he tried calling me and I wasn't available. But it seems like he's always calling someone else first.

The District Manager(My boss's boss) said that the way people get hours is by way kind of sales they make. Such as pop, candy, popcorn etc....and how many sales we make of this new program we have. Well I haven't really gotten the chance to prove myself. Everyone else gets more hours so of course I'm gonna be the one with the low numbers and it really didn't help that the couple times I actually worked, I got stuck outside doing a sidewalk sale, instead of working on the register.
 
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