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Elie Mystal Gets It Wrong. Again.
It might come as no surprise to many when Race-commentator and voluntary segregationist, Elie Mystal decides to race-bait Twitter. He says:
Now.
To any reasonable person, we question: “okay …so … was she wearing a shirt that looked like a CVS employee?” or “Was she the only one around?”
Turns out, she was. But you don’t find that out until you read the article; it’s part of the scene-setting.
Instead, we get a lovely article on how it’s been a joy to exclude white people from his life. That his home is a “Wakanda” where he must only interact with white people by choice (or for work, which pays him to write this stuff). He fears having to go back to the normal racism that is exemplified by his witnessed interaction. He fears having to go back to whiteness (?).
He then goes on to malign people on Twitter for asking questions about the interaction that might add detail or cause, instead accusing them of playing into the general default racism of America. Sometimes, to be fair, they do play into racist interactions. But this was not one of them. He discusses how any reasonable person would be polite(again, what?):
“Excuse me, young lady, would you happen to know where I can get a vaccine?” That’s just etiquette 101.
Well then, he’s never managed to work in either healthcare or in retail. Anyone who has worked in either knows exactly how people ask for things. There is no please. No “excuse me”. No “would you happen to know”. This is not to say that the kid was being treated like an employee. She was being treated like a random stranger when someone is in a rush and is, generally, kinda rude. When an employee, a person has an expectation that a supervisor of some kind might deny them services for being verbally abusive to staff. When a random person?
There is no Etiquette 101 for most of us commoners in this country.
What it must be like to live in a world where anyone not phrasing things politely constitutes racism? What it must be like to live in a world where literally any interaction can be boiled down to whiteness or expectation!
Indeed. Mr. Mystal has managed to segregate himself from the outside world long enough that he seems to assume that people are actually more polite, inoffensive, and pleasant than they ever have been. Almost as if a pandemic might make humanity a little more, well, humane.
Shame that isn’t so.
But it isn’t racism.
Published in General
Don’t ever wear a red shirt when going shopping at Target.
The Bob Newhart Show ran from 1972 to 1978.
Or being an extra on Star Trek.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshirts_(novel)
Once upon a time, it could have indicated membership in a bowling league, but I haven’t seen much evidence of bowling leagues for a while now.
Or in the bowling league.
EDIT: Dang, I’ve been Percival’d.
What a revolting, hate-filled, specimen. So oppressed I see he’s a product of Harvard Law School. LinkedIn says his wife is VP and Assistant General Counsel at JPMorgan. And his father, Elie Mystal Sr., who died in 2017, is described as follows:
(His father’s political career ended with five-years probation and a hefty fine for lying about his residence in his district.)
So, all in all, sounds like a life of extraordinary privilege and blessings start to finish, and I daresay the little Wakanda in which Elie has been holed up away from all the nasty white people for the last twelve months is pretty nice too.
Imagine my surprise at any of this.
PS: Also, he seems, in most photos, to be wearing a Don King wig. I may be oblivious of most cultural references, but even I spotted that. LOL.
Shades of Elbridge Gerry.
His (Mystal’s) father? Yes, totally.
I get that and I’m not even usually wearing uniform-like clothes. People just guess that “that lady over there prob’ly knows something”. I mean, they’re not wrong. A lot of time, I’m somewhat helpful. But I get asked for help a whole lot and I have never worked retail.
I guess what I’m saying is: some people look like they might know things. Other times, they’re the only person around. Either way, they’ll get asked.
They also look harmless. From the first week I started working in Times Square, I was getting stopped by tourists trying to find places. Eventually, I got to where I was helpful.
I am a large geeky looking guy that wears T shirts or polos usually in solid colors and black pants. I pretty much get mistaken and asked computer / electronic questions in most box stores that sell such stuff. Never thought I should be offended because I was mistaken for a low wage retail clerk.
I used to be mistaken for an employee at Radio Shack back in the day. Partly, that would be due to the actual sales staff knowing my name and occasionally asking me questions.
And all these years I’ve taken it as a compliment that I look like someone who might know information useful to someone else. I have much to learn in the new offense-driven culture.
That is part of the problem. I do not look down on retail clerks or their jobs. Thus being mistaken for one is not an insult to me. I notice to a certain crowd those jobs are considered beneath them and thus an insult.
Ah, indeed. Not just racist but classist, too!
Exactly. Young/old/black/white/whatever, why would it be insulting to be mistaken for being an employee of any business? I’m trying to picture any business that I might be visiting where I would be offended if someone thought I worked there. I’m drawing a blank.
Typical DMV office? Many government/bureaucratic offices? Even then it’s usually the system not the person’s which is why we don’t rebel.
I remember a decade ago I was out to eat with my friends. Their teenage kid made a derogatory comment about the busboy and his job. The table just stopped. The adults were baffled. We have worked such jobs and saw nothing lowly about the work. From the adults perspective it was somebody working, just at a different place in their career. The teens viewed it as shameful and worthy of ridicule.
That’s why every high school kid should have a job for a t least a few months working at a Fast food joint or a restaurant washing dishes or bussing tables, just so they know that the work isn’t beneath them.
Don’t even need to do that. Go volunteer at a hospital. Work as an aide.
Once you’ve cleaned up vomit and feces, washed your hands, and then tidied someone else’s room, fluffed their pillow and brought them a snack, you realize that there is nothing you won’t do.
And sometimes, you won’t even be paid for it (like our volunteers).
God bless all of them (and may they return soon, we miss them!).
Yeah, there is a bias regarding blue-collar work that has been with us for a couple generations now. I remember in high school a teacher telling us that if we don’t master English composition we won’t get into college. And if you don’t go to college, you will end up working in a factory. Heavens no, not that! Except half the people doing common jobs that don’t require a college education are filled by people who do have a college degree. A lot of people get a degree and then find that they are well suited to driving truck, selling cars, tending bar, or making pizza.
Excellent point.
Both of my kids worked for a supermarket; started with cart wrangling and moved up to checkout. After working in the parking lot in whatever weather is happening for a year or so, the clean and indoor work of checkout looks luxurious.
Wow, it just happened to me and I’m devastated. After work I thought I would stop in at the local Ford dealership because I saw on the web that they have a Mustang Bullitt on hand. I won’t be buying a new car for years, I just wanted to take a few minutes and admire it. I was walking out of the dealership right about 8:00 and a man getting out of his vehicle hollered over at me asking if they are open yet. I totally forgot to be offended at his “rudeness.”