jaybirdsmommy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2008
I don't get how this can automatically be accepted as discrimination and I don't think the employee should have been fired unless that was evidence of other discriminatory acts. She said she asked for the key because the kids were alone and mom was sitting in a car. If other people were doing the same thing and weren't questioned THEN there would be a problem. While there are certainly often negative associations with the phrase "people like you" she could have very well meant "people who sit in their cars while their children swim."
This reminds me of an instance when I was growing up and we were in San Francisco. We were walking down the street and a man jumped in front of my dad and said "You're staring at me because I'm black!" My dad was surprised and blurted out "I'm staring at you because you're wearing a crazy hat." Fortunately the man laughed and moved on. We were all glad it hadn't turned into a major incident!
Exactly, but given the current environment many people did jump to that conclusion, including the woman in the video. I even saw an article on my facebook feed last night that had hundreds of commenters calling for the police officers who responded to the call to be fired as well.
The employee shouldn't have said "people like you" and the conversation with the guest should have been handled differently. Like someone upthread said, better employee training may have avoided this altogether.