Lowe's delivery customer requests "no black delivery crew" - manager fired

[twinboysmom]

I wonder if that witch would request a new doctor if the one treating her was black. I wonder if she'd request a new police officer or EMT if the one responding to her emergency was black.

People like that sicken me.

I do feel bad for the one fired if he was only recalling the team to protect the employee.

I have a lot of experience with this. After almost 20 years of nursing I can tell you that I have seen people refuse healthcare workers and physicians based on their race and or gender. I have seen this happen equally with both black and white people, males and females. It is very sad and happens more often than you think.

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

I have a lot of experience with this. After almost 20 years of nursing I can tell you that I have seen people refuse healthcare workers and physicians based on their race and or gender. I have seen this happen equally with both black and white people, males and females. It is very sad and happens more often than you think.

My wife worked for a doctor from India many, many years ago and used to come home to tell me stories I still can't wrap my head around.

 

[MIGrandma]

I have a lot of experience with this. After almost 20 years of nursing I can tell you that I have seen people refuse healthcare workers and physicians based on their race and or gender. I have seen this happen equally with both black and white people, males and females. It is very sad and happens more often than you think.

I agree, this is a very sad thing. I want whichever doctor is qualified to treat whatever illness I might have, whether it be a he or a she, black or white. Would make absolutely no difference to me, and it saddens me that it does make a difference to some.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Wait a minute. PC? Calling out a manager for being willing to cave in to a customer's overtly racist demand is PC? I don't think so.

No, what WOULD have been caving to PC pressure is if the company did nothing UNTIL the media got ahold of the story. This does not appear to be the case, so it's a moot point.

 

[NewRVLady]

Most of my service techs and delivery peeps from Lowes have been black
I live in Deep South

However - when I worked for a Flower Shop my boss never would hire a male black for delivery( we did have one or 2 African American women always as drivers)
Reason is most deliveries are to a woman alone at home and may customers might be uncomfortable with a single male delivery person, of either race.

 

[bcla]

Nothing really new, but I found the following:

http://www.observerchronicle.com/wo...d-after-customer-requests-white-driver/67195/

It reads like something that was translated to another language and then back into English.

TORONTO – North Carolina-based Lowe’s Residence Enchancment is treading some scorching water after it was revealed that managers of a retailer in Virginia pulled a black driver off a supply order when the client insisted on a white deliveryman.

Marcus Bradley claims to have labored on the Danville, Virginia location for 11 years. However simply over every week in the past, a buyer’s extraordinary calls for modified his life eternally.​

If I were to guess, it should be "North Carolina-based Lowe’s Home Improvement is in hot water after it was revealed that managers of a store in Virginia pulled a black driver off a delivery order when the customer insisted on a white delivery man".

 

[JaxDad]

Heck - even though this was the South, I'm still surprised.

I'm a Southern Man, born and bred. I went off to college in the Northeast, and people just assumed I was prejudiced. Every school I had ever attended and every sports team on which I had ever played was at least half black. I lived an integrated life and never even thought about it. It was what it was. Those Northern boys had few if any black students in their schools or on their teams. They may have had black servants. They did not treat blacks as equals. They treated them like aliens. And I was the prejudiced one, because I was from the South.

 

[bcla]

I'm a Southern Man, born and bred. I went off to college in the Northeast, and people just assumed I was prejudiced. Every school I had ever attended and every sports team on which I had ever played was at least half black. I lived an integrated life and never even thought about it. It was what it was. Those Northern boys had few if any black students in their schools or on their teams. They may have had black servants. They did not treat blacks as equals. They treated them like aliens. And I was the prejudiced one, because I was from the South.

I've known plenty of people from the south. That being said, many have relayed that while most people have healthy attitudes about race, there is still a strong current of racism that hasn't quite gone away. I've read about certain high schools where it was technically integrated, but where there was a "black prom" and a "white prom". However, I was surprised because this woman wasn't terribly shy about saying how she felt. The way it was described to me, most people who feel this way aren't so overt about it.

I kind of wonder how this woman could manage to deal with life with that attitude coupled with the fact that the city she lives in is about half-black population.

 

[JaxDad]

I'm not saying there is no racism in the South, or anywhere for that matter. I just feel you made an unnecessary and, I think, untrue generalization.

 

[Dawnlight]

I have a lot of experience with this. After almost 20 years of nursing I can tell you that I have seen people refuse healthcare workers and physicians based on their race and or gender. I have seen this happen equally with both black and white people, males and females. It is very sad and happens more often than you think.

That's just awful.

 

[L&Lfan]

There's a Muslim women nursing assistant in the nursing home where I work and she is permitted to only attend to women residents. If a man needs assistance she gets a non Muslim to help. I understand religious accommodation but a part of me feels we should be helping all our residents, but maybe I'm wrong...

 

[mousehockey37]

Did it also occur to anyone that with all the emphasis in the media right now, that a request like this IS the perfect storm? There's people everywhere that know how to "play" the system. She set the company up for a no-win situation, but she set herself up in a situation where yes, she looks awful to the rest of the world, but she more than likely got that item for free (now).

When I worked in collections, we had a special set of people who dealt with certain accounts when they came up. Why? There's a particular person that has taken it as their job to learn the in's and out's of collections. This person has several advanced degrees and when they are called and proper procedure isn't followed, he sues the company calling him. It's not limited to any realm, it's literally any type of collections. He makes this his living. He teaches and helps others with "spreading the word".

Ever wonder why it takes 10 minutes to go through all of your contact information and such when all you have is a simple question?

 

[bcla]

Did it also occur to anyone that with all the emphasis in the media right now, that a request like this IS the perfect storm? There's people everywhere that know how to "play" the system. She set the company up for a no-win situation, but she set herself up in a situation where yes, she looks awful to the rest of the world, but she more than likely got that item for free (now).

Doubt it. She got the item delivered. I'm guessing she paid for it in advance, unless she bought it on credit. I don't see what grounds she would have had to request that the item and/or delivery be comped.

 

[smadath]

I had a delivery from Lowe's last month. Two Hipsters. I sure thought about sending them away. (one was wearing black knee socks with his khaki shorts... what was he thinking?!)

"... 'cause there's too many hipsters and I just can't relate."

 

[smadath]

So, now in seriousness...

I Liked OP's post because I had the same thought on hearing this story: it would never even occur to me to ask something like this. And, I wouldn't want to anyway. No matter your feelings on race, or your age, you have to know that that's discrimination. Even if you aren't the discriminating under the law, you're asking someone else to do it for you.

Hope the customer is proud to be partially (if not more) responsible for the manager losing his job. Like some others have said, this was pretty much a No Win for them.

 

[Peaseblossom]

I heard a story from a colleague flying through a Southern U.S. hub about an incident where a man refused to board a flight because the co-pilot was black. And the airline caved and swapped pilots.

How sad for that guy - to work his way to where he was and then be treated like garbage. It might not be surprising, but it's still shocking, if that makes sense.

 

[NewRVLady]

I heard a story from a colleague flying through a Southern U.S. hub about an incident where a man refused to board a flight because the co-pilot was black. And the airline caved and swapped pilots.

How sad for that guy - to work his way to where he was and then be treated like garbage. It might not be surprising, but it's still shocking, if that makes sense.

I don't believe that at all. No way the pilot would be switched at last moment

 

[SirDuff]

I don't believe that at all. No way the pilot would be switched at last moment

I have a lot of trouble believing it as well. And cannot find any stories about it (though maybe I'm just a bad Googler).

 

[Peaseblossom]

I'm not lying. As I said, it was a story relayed to me so I can't vouch with certainty as to whether he was lying. He was a travel enthusiast who flew frequently and was kicked-in-the-gut shocked by what he saw.

I believe we were talking about our experiences flying out of Charleston. I couldn't believe I was carded when buying a beer, made me feel young. Turns out it was their policy to card 100%.

ETA: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...igious-accommodation-says-passenger-1.3171114

Just an example of how people try to de-escalate uncomfortable situations.

 

[dashofsunshine]

I had a delivery from Lowe's last month. Two Hipsters. I sure thought about sending them away. (one was wearing black knee socks with his khaki shorts... what was he thinking?!)

"... 'cause there's too many hipsters and I just can't relate."

I'm dying. I live in Nashville so this is a very real situation for me

ANYWAY, I find it odd that she would think a Lowe's delivery man/employee would rob/kill/whatever her. He was hired by the largest home improvement chain in America - black/white/orange/green, I'm pretty sure they are like 100% of all other major companies and do background checks, at a minimum. I would never think a member of a team from a very reputable company delivering my washing machine would hurt me, no matter his skin color. Did she think the other white members of the delivery team would just stand and watch as the black guy robbed her or something?