Incident in Newton

Friday, June 15, 2007

An Incident in Newton

I went to Russo's for lunch today.

I treated myself for making it through a rather rough work week.

I returned to my desk to enjoy the deli lunch and listen to the BBC news via NPR.

A maintenance staffer walked in with something curious to say.

"I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but there are some people around here who might not like what you're listening to", said he.

"Don't worry about it. If someone doesn’t like it tell them to come see me", I replied.

He stood there like a reddening statue.

I asked if he had anything else to say.

He tried to explain what he meant, but failed.

I grew weary of his rambling and told him I was busy.

I pondered the curious exchange.

I asked myself who, that matters, at my work place would be offended by NPR and why.

NPR is so commonly heard in that facility that one might think it's piped in.

In fact, the organization partners with NPR from time to time.

I soon discerned that PWT was miffed that I bought lunch from Russo's, sat at a desk and listened to a radio station above his intellect.

Upon that realization it occurred to me that my response was not quite sufficient and that he obviously didn't have enough work to do.

So I went to the intranet site and created several work orders which would fall to him.

My office window was a bit dirty.

The blinds were dusty.

The thing upon which the chair rolls was cracked and needed to be replaced.

The copy station was low on paper.

Someone dropped a cup of coffee in the break room and didn't clean it all up.

I also called two colored colleagues and asked them to do similarly.

They cheerfully complied.

By the end of the day PWT was dashing to and fro frantically cleaning, fixing, fetching and toting.

I later learned that his job is in jeopardy and he's having problems at home.

I felt not the slightest sympathy.

Funny how some colored people can always make excuses for white people isn't it?

I also learned that several people of color have experienced similar things with him.

One Black woman mused that he was acting like the surly janitor on the TV program Scrubs and laughed.

I was not amused with him or her.

When I got home another colleague called and said, "the problem is, my brother, you hang comfortably with those he aspires to be, and you ain't supposed to in his way of thinking."

As they say down south, that wasn't anything to say.

Then I thought about the many ways some of us permit, and thereby promote, that kind of behavior.

I sit here now wondering how young people I care about will navigate such things which show no signs of extinction in our society.