Alright, this goes back to 2005 when I was still living in Pittsburgh. I moved back to the Burgh from Ohio after I pretty much flunked out of college second semester of my sophmore year in Marietta and decide to go to community college in 2004. That year I tried finding work to save up money while living at my mom's house and the only place that would hire me was McDonald's.
So back to the summer of 2005, I was looking for work to make money, and found this ad for speakers...I thought we would be installing them in people's houses. I went to the interview, I was told what the job was about, they hired me, and the next week on Monday I was there for my first day of work. I was the only person of color there in a staff of 8 white guys.
I slowly but surely started to realize this was not a legit job. Wwe would have teams of two three peopel in a unmarked white van and we'd go to parking lots in malls and at fast food places and ask people if they "needed" speakers" basically selling them in a lot using rushed sales tactics. Basically I was a trainee that week and they paid me to observe.
I tried selling speakers using the pitch they gave me, and every time without fail, the white people I'd pitch to ask me "are these stolen?" "what's wrong with them?" while when the white guys pitched to EVERYBODY (including black people) they assumed they were getting a great deal and wouldn't hesistate to buy those thangs.
In the middle of the week these white guys begin saying some borderline racist shyt to me, but they assumed I would think they were joking. I didn't think much of it cause I was 20 at the time and not privvy to race and racism as I am now.
Here's where it gets interesting...near my last days there.
I was introduced to this newbie, this 19 year old white kid. And basically he was making moves in the company, tehy were about to promote him cause he was a good sales person etc. I was in a van with him and another guy doing rounds. WE stopped at a Sheetz to discuss sales plans and how to pitch/. So basically I talk to him, ask him "what should I do" "how should i approach the sale?" cause I wanted money to move out of my parents house. I was laughing just taking it easy and this kid just says to me with a mean look in his eye "stop smiling". Then after getting stuff from Sheetz we head back on the road to get back to "work".
So then, the 19 year old pulls the van over at a Best Buy parking lot and talks to this black dude driving a Cadillac Escalade (which looked hella nice BTW), and asked him if he wanted some speakers. The black guy simply said "no, I'm not interested". And drove off. This kid utters as loud as fukk, with me in the back "I knew he was a fukking n****r". His co-worker told him in his own words "to watch his fukking mouth."
TBH, me and everyone else in that crew had no real issues...just me and this 19 year old punk bytch.
Which pissed me the fukk off. I was like
. I couldn't even speak to this motherfukked after that, I seriously was thinking about quitting that day, just to beat the shyt out of this racist cac.
The next day after this incident, me and another partner took the vans out to go grab sales and make some money. I managed to pitch a guy who was willing to buy speakers from me. I was like "yes!". So as I was about to take the ,money from this guys hand, my partner/co-worker that day (a white guy) immediately gets between me and him and just grabs the money as he was about to give it to me. And ended up taking my sale...from me.
And now for the kicker...the last day I worked there.
After a while, I was getting paid just to be a trainee, the third or fourth day after that, they just decided to stop paying me. This was deliberate.
We met in the morning before we loaded the vans up with speakers and went about our work day. The regional manager comes in and gives us a pep talk. After that pep talk, I went to take a piss.
I legit overheard this guy saying "don't bring that n****r back here" as I was in the bathroom. He said it real low.
After that work day, I was fired immediately for not making any sales (we had to make two to become full sales people at that job).
To this day, thinking about this incident...this is WHY I REFUSE to work for white people. EVER. AGAIN. PERIOD.
@DrX
@ridedolo
I'm happy I got that wakeup call cause since then I was hellbent on making my own opportunities.
I was also very proactive in making sure every employer I had since then was black...and they have been with the exception of one.
So back to the summer of 2005, I was looking for work to make money, and found this ad for speakers...I thought we would be installing them in people's houses. I went to the interview, I was told what the job was about, they hired me, and the next week on Monday I was there for my first day of work. I was the only person of color there in a staff of 8 white guys.
I slowly but surely started to realize this was not a legit job. Wwe would have teams of two three peopel in a unmarked white van and we'd go to parking lots in malls and at fast food places and ask people if they "needed" speakers" basically selling them in a lot using rushed sales tactics. Basically I was a trainee that week and they paid me to observe.
I tried selling speakers using the pitch they gave me, and every time without fail, the white people I'd pitch to ask me "are these stolen?" "what's wrong with them?" while when the white guys pitched to EVERYBODY (including black people) they assumed they were getting a great deal and wouldn't hesistate to buy those thangs.
In the middle of the week these white guys begin saying some borderline racist shyt to me, but they assumed I would think they were joking. I didn't think much of it cause I was 20 at the time and not privvy to race and racism as I am now.
Here's where it gets interesting...near my last days there.
I was introduced to this newbie, this 19 year old white kid. And basically he was making moves in the company, tehy were about to promote him cause he was a good sales person etc. I was in a van with him and another guy doing rounds. WE stopped at a Sheetz to discuss sales plans and how to pitch/. So basically I talk to him, ask him "what should I do" "how should i approach the sale?" cause I wanted money to move out of my parents house. I was laughing just taking it easy and this kid just says to me with a mean look in his eye "stop smiling". Then after getting stuff from Sheetz we head back on the road to get back to "work".
So then, the 19 year old pulls the van over at a Best Buy parking lot and talks to this black dude driving a Cadillac Escalade (which looked hella nice BTW), and asked him if he wanted some speakers. The black guy simply said "no, I'm not interested". And drove off. This kid utters as loud as fukk, with me in the back "I knew he was a fukking n****r". His co-worker told him in his own words "to watch his fukking mouth."
TBH, me and everyone else in that crew had no real issues...just me and this 19 year old punk bytch.
Which pissed me the fukk off. I was like
. I couldn't even speak to this motherfukked after that, I seriously was thinking about quitting that day, just to beat the shyt out of this racist cac.The next day after this incident, me and another partner took the vans out to go grab sales and make some money. I managed to pitch a guy who was willing to buy speakers from me. I was like "yes!". So as I was about to take the ,money from this guys hand, my partner/co-worker that day (a white guy) immediately gets between me and him and just grabs the money as he was about to give it to me. And ended up taking my sale...from me.
And now for the kicker...the last day I worked there.
After a while, I was getting paid just to be a trainee, the third or fourth day after that, they just decided to stop paying me. This was deliberate.
We met in the morning before we loaded the vans up with speakers and went about our work day. The regional manager comes in and gives us a pep talk. After that pep talk, I went to take a piss.
I legit overheard this guy saying "don't bring that n****r back here" as I was in the bathroom. He said it real low.
After that work day, I was fired immediately for not making any sales (we had to make two to become full sales people at that job).
To this day, thinking about this incident...this is WHY I REFUSE to work for white people. EVER. AGAIN. PERIOD.
@DrX
@ridedolo
I'm happy I got that wakeup call cause since then I was hellbent on making my own opportunities.
I was also very proactive in making sure every employer I had since then was black...and they have been with the exception of one.
look. Haven't had a long term conversation with him in 4 months.
