Heated

When I first moved to this country, whenever someone was mean, rude, unpleasant or a jerk to me, I attributed it to them being a mean, rude, unpleasant, jerk. I didn't think they were being that way to me because of my race or my sex. I just assumed they were a shitty human being. To this day, I am not one to pull the race card. However, today was the first time in my entire life I have had to call someone a racist, son of a bitch to their face, in a room where everyone else was Caucasian, you could have heard a pin drop as I walked out as that was the last thing I said. I believe that is the best thing I could have done for myself because I would feel a whole lot worse right now if I hadn't stood up for myself.

I somehow feel violated. I feel like someone tried to come into my world and without my permission, tried to make me a victim, a victim of racism, of sexism and I had to fight a battle I wasn't prepared for and didn't want to fight this morning in other for that not to be the case. I refuse to be a victim.

I have not been this upset in a long, long time. To cut a long story short, I'll just post a copy of the complaint I submitted to the USPS.

On 8/15/2016 at 0800, I went to the post office to pick up my mail. I presented my slip to a female postal clerk and expressed to her that I was home when the mail carrier dropped off this slip but no one had tried to contact me to check if i was home and this was the second time it was occurring. The postal clerk at the next station who I would later find out from the police was named Jim, chimed in and stated that some carriers were better than others in trying to find out if someone was home before dropping off a slip. I informed the clerk that I had worked all night, got off at 0600 and had to wait until 0800 for the post office to open before going home and that wasn't fair to me as this could have been avoided. The female clerk stated that she would let her supervisor know and went back to get my mail, while Jim attended to a customer in his station. While at the counter waiting for my package to be brought to me, I placed a 25 second call regarding a patient as I am a physician. At the same time, I heard Jim stating that I couldn't be on the phone just as I was about to end the call. A second later before I had time to put my phone away, Jim reached over from his station and slammed a sign stating "no phone calls allowed" in front of me. The call during which i spoke in very low tones lasted exactly 25 secs which was how long it took for me to tell the recipient that I would call them back. I told Jim that he did not need to be rude to me as I was already getting off the phone. He proceeded to yell and berate me, telling me I was the one who was rude. I tried explaining that the call was about a patient and he told me I needed to have left my phone in my car, all the while yelling while there were other customers waiting to be attended to. I told him I wasn't being rude as the lady who was attending to me had already gone to the back to get my package. I asked him how he would feel if someone took a sign and slammed it in front of him, demonstrating exactly what he did. At this time the clerk who was helping me returned with my package. Jim once again reached over from his station and this time attempted to grab my package from the other clerk. I was fast enough to snatch it from him as he had no right or reason to try to withhold my package from me. I was upset that he did that and called him out on it. He tried to intimidate me by threatening to call the police and I asked him to do that because I hadn't done anything except stand up for myself. As i started walking away, he yelled at me not to ever come back to "this place" and I told him if they had done their job I wouldn't be there in the first place. Since he threatened that i could not come back to the USPS store, I went over to the police station and spoke to an officer about the incident. I was also concerned that my mail or mail service would be tampered with. She told me to report to his supervisor as they could not do anything about his rude behavior. She got in contact with Jim and asked if he was serious about banning me from the store and he told her he was not. I am reporting this incident because I encountered a USPS employee who was very unprofessional in carrying out his duties. He appears not know how to deal with customers and also seems to have issues controlling his temper. In addition to this he came across as a bully who tried to intimidate someone he perceived as weak. He saw a young looking, black female with a foreign accent and decided I wasn't deserving of basic courtesy. In summary, He told me to get off my phone, did not give me a chance to act on his instruction, proceeded to rudely and loudly slam a sign in front of my face, tried to seize my package, threatened me with the police for no just cause and threatened to ban me from the post office all because I told him he did not have to be rude to me and I refused to be bullied by him. I don't think it is acceptable to SLAM a sign in front a customer's face over a 25 second phone call and then yell at them to boot. I would appreciate if this incident is addressed as Jim is a poor representative of the USPS. Thank you.

While I continue to be thrown off balance by this incident, I believe this guy picked the right person. The next time he encounters a black female with an accent who may or may not know her rights, may or may not be a recent immigrant, may or may not be at the bottom of the totem pole, he would think twice before treating her like a piece of trash who has no voice.

 Dude did not see me coming this morning. I was quiet, soft spoken, probably looked mellow because I was dead tired so he thought I was an easy prey. He learned today.

Forgive the typos... I'm at work and really should be trying to nap. For me to take the time to type up this complaint, then blog about should give up an idea how upset I am by all of this.