Prejudice

” A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn no other way” Mark Twain

.I wondered why he was laughing and he informed me he was two classes away from receiving his certification in Heating and Cooling from the same community college. He said it wasn’t easy because he kept being bumped from shift to shift It seemed because of his low seniority every time he seemed to be making progress on his classes somebody was bumping him for his shift. What saved him he believed was the fact that he could collect unemployment if the job they wanted him to bump to was at a lower pay grade than the one he was working.

.He was smart enough not accept anything lower in pay, received unemployment, and got to finish two full time semesters at the college. He then had to accept his current job on the afternoon shift. He was a wealth of information. Having worked all the shifts in this factory he was quick to point out who was who. The foremen, the union stewards, and floor inspectors. He believed, although the pranking continued, the afternoon shift wasn’t as bad as the midnight shift.

. He told me the midnight shift workers were unbelievable. They were always pranking him.. There was a lot of down time and horse play. He was glad not to be working on that shift. Unfortunately, not long after our conversation I was bumped to the midnight shift. I found out exactly what David was talking about. It wasn’t uncommon for workers to throw bolts at the storage bins next to my work station, and the clanking metal sounded like a gun shot. Our work stations were separated by these large storage bins so you would never know who threw what.

.I remember seeing one of the foreman speaking with one of the floor inspectors being hit, but he had on a hard hat. He just laughed and kept talking. He didn’t seem to care. I did. I wasn’t given a hard hat to wear while working. That morning I actually ran into David on campus and he wanted to know how I liked the midnight shift. I informed him it was as crazy as he said it was. What’s worse, you can’t tell whose doing it. He said, “exactly.”

.We agreed to meet for lunch where we continued to talk about the factory. Our classes were in different buildings but ended at roughly the same time. We met in the student Union. He pointed out that like work, there were not many African Americans here, but he felt welcomed here. I questioned why he didn’t feel safe at work. He felt that all the pranking, bolt throwing, and machine sabotage was directed towards him. I had informed him that it continued even worse on the midnight shift. He shook his head in acknowledgment but he added this caveat; watch your back.

.He felt targeted and believed I was being targeted too because of my friendship with him. He worked longer there than I did. I believed he understood racism more than me. I was right out of high school coop, first semester at a community college, and really just beginning to understand what was happening at this factory. I told him I’d pay more attention to my surroundings, but it was difficult to see anyone doing the pranking. He shook his head in agreement. It would take me awhile to understand his concern. My Life Journey To Be Continued… Hebrews 2: 9-18