THE UNWRITTEN RULES OF THE WHITE RUN WORKPLACE: PHONE VS IN PERSON INTERVIEWS

In the scenario that plays out in the video above, the black woman and the white woman have been working together by phone for a while. But when I was young, this very scenario is what happened to me in 80% of my job interviews.

That is, my phone interview always went great. But when I walked in the door for the formal interview, the white woman interviewing me always made the face shown in the video. That is the exact face that Becky makes when she was expecting a white woman but your black ass showed up.

I actually had one white woman come out of her back office --after speaking so glowingly to me on the phone and almost guaranteeing me the job-- stop short, stare, and tell me the job had already been filled during the 15 minutes it took me to drive to her establishment.

I can see a black person deciding to jump off a roof rather than go through this day after day after day if they were out of work for 3 months or 6 months or a year and I never had to look for a job that long in my life because I'm class privileged and had impressive schools and such on my resume. Eventually, rather quickly in fact, I'd hit upon a white interviewer that would see me as a "credit to my race."

Once I had my foot in the door, "credit to my race" meant all I had to do was perform my job better than a chimpanzee to keep the job. But "credit to your race" employment never gets you promotions. 

I've only been hired by one white woman who I thought saw me as a whole human being. And it was early in my work life. If she hadn't been held down and held back by the good ole white boys network herself, I'm sure she would have promoted me in a way commensurate with my performance.

This is why I cannot imagine the kind of hell a black person who lives at the wrong address must go through when looking for a job. I cannot imagine it. But I can imagine losing a job and winding up on welfare or homeless if I didn't have my class privilege shielding my blackness. 

I don't know if I can also imagine myself winding up in Alice Johnson's shoes  -- the woman released from a life sentence in prison after 21 years for being a communications link in an illicit drug operation. 

But maybe I could have wound up in Johnson's position too. I think I might have done almost anything to avoid having to depend on welfare. Filling out paperwork and applying for welfare almost has to involve, at some point, dealing with sneering white people who look down on you for fitting into one of the worst stereotypes white people have created for us. 

The woman doing this awesome series, presents the information as comedy. And I love it because it presents some very serious issues that 99% of white people are likely completely unaware. But I do wonder if some of non-black people watching this series realize that these white-racism-based reactions executed by white people can literally wind up be life altering for black people.

This scenario recast as job interview here in this post is the reason why I resent the hell out of the term "microaggression." There's nothing "micro" about this seemingly low-level white supremacy when it surrounds you on all sides and can make the difference in you being able to eat, buy a car, or own a house. 

Check out the UNWRITTEN RULES series on facebook or binge watch all three seasons on the InkSpot Entertainment Channel.

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