White Saltine Cracker

Drive

On December of 2022 I arrived  at work just like any other day. The drive to work often felt like taking a seven hour road trip to Florida even though it was only a forty-five minute drive on a good day without traffic. My mother was the one who drove us to work on this particular day. We got in the car, and I had taken a nap. Once I had woken up, we still had not arrived. Our job was located in the heart of Atlanta, Georgia at a community medical center. On this particular day, I arrived at work dragging. My job as a  receptionist can be described as someone who answers phone calls to transfer people over to the correct department that they need. 
Even though I was dragging, it was a beautiful sunny day outside, the birds were chirping and the wind blew across my face giving me a refreshing feeling. As I stepped inside the building, the lighting dimmed and the air became stagnant. Every morning, once I walked in, there was the smell of different cleaners from the housekeeping department who keep the bathrooms and hallways clean. Each day there was the same instrumental music that had a total of five songs that played over and over for eight hours straight. It could drive a person crazy. It changed to a depressing type of feeling as I took the elevator to the third floor, where not much action took place. 
I sat in the front while all my other coworkers passed by me to get to their desks behind closed doors. The morning went on and on, not many calls were coming in and not many people passed by to chit chat. I was bored out of my mind so much that if you had given me a pillow I would have passed out. But knowing I was getting paid, I decided to be a good employee and waited for a call. 

Phone

Hours and hours passed by when suddenly a red light started flashing on the phone. I was thrilled! I answered the phone by saying, “Atlanta Medical Center, how may I help you?” The lady on the other side of the line answered saying she needed to cancel an appointment. The tone in her voice already made me aware that she was in a bitter mood, so I made sure to stay calm and be as polite as possible. Unfortunately canceling appointments was something I had not been trained to do. I politely asked what department her appointment was in so I could direct her over to the correct department that she needed help in. 
Keep in mind that before someone could reach me on the phone there was an automated voice that directed them to the different departments. All they needed to do was press a number depending on what they needed assistance with. After asking the simple question that my job required me to ask all patients, she replied; “ You don’t need to know what department my appointment is for, you just need my name and date of birth”. I was baffled at her reaction. Normally when I have offered to transfer the patients over they have been so thankful because they weren’t sure which option to choose. 
Then I continued to say, “Actually I do need to know what department your appointment was for so I can transfer you over to the staff  that can go ahead and cancel your appointment. Her response amazed me only more. She responded, “Look you white saltine cracker bitch, I need you to get off my hotline.” My heartbeat shot up as if I had been running a marathon, for I was appalled at what I was hearing. She continued to raise her voice and curse at me, but by that time, I was no longer processing all of the words she was saying. I quickly realized I wouldn’t be able to help this lady because she wouldn’t even let me get a word in, therefore without hesitation I hung up.

Saltine cracker family tradition: (vegetarian) New Mexican enchiladas

This outburst of this person calling honestly had me in disbelief for so many reasons. Thoughts started flooding my brain. First, I thought about the fact that I was Hispanic, not even white. Secondly, I thought of the fact that you are literally given the option to go straight to the department that can help before you even reach me. I also realized that I apparently sound like a white lady over the phone, which only made me laugh. The only thing I could think to do at the moment was to go and tell my coworkers. 
The first person I went to was this lady named Mia. I have known her for years now and she has become like an aunt to me. She has grown to be very protective of me and advised me to inform my supervisor. She was of course livid about the situation and said, “ you should’ve first cursed her out in Spanish and then transferred her over to me and I would’ve cursed them out in English and Spanish.” Mind you, Mia is Cambodian and doesn’t really know a lick of Spanish. 
She made me laugh and helped me feel less of the shock. I also was laughing at the fact that I mainly only understand Spanish and struggle to speak it, which she was also aware of. I then went to my supervisor who is the Executive Administrative Assistant of the company. She has also known me since I was a little girl. I spoke to my supervisor, informing her of what had just happened. The information she received from me infuriated her as well. She had also wished that I had transferred the call over to her. She told me if she had gotten a hold of that lady, she would have never been calling back. 

Love Hurts

My supervisor apologized on the behalf of the patient and the company, which didn’t seem necessary to me. The only one that should have been apologizing was the patient. I felt reassured and felt like everyone had my back. I had nothing to fear. Now that the situation has calmed down, I reflected on how the world that we live in to this day can be so cruel. 
People can be selfish, rude, and inconsiderate. It is a harsh reality we live in. I know there are good people in the world but it often seems like the bad outweighs the good.  My heart grows heavy each and every day when I experience or see how racial profiling is still very real in the world. I am twenty one years of age and have experienced being racial profiled more than once. 
It is 2023 furthermore I thought racial profiling would have ended by now. What are we doing wrong and what can we do to better ourselves? Hatred does no good, kindness goes a  long way yet we lack so much of it. We need to learn how to better ourselves by showing love, being respectful of other feelings and opinions. While all of these feelings wandered in my brain, I thought the only thing I could do in the moment was to automatically forgive her. 
The words she said could have been hurtful but in the long run I would only be hurting myself if I kept dwelling on it. Obviously it didn’t bother her that she used all the words that she did. I say this because she kept going on and on and had no intention on stopping. 
Holding a grudge was only going to hurt me in the long run. It would have given me an uneasy feeling and I want to be in the best state of mind as possible. In my heart I forgave her because maybe she didn’t know better; maybe she was raise a different way and did not know that words hurt. We do not know these things but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue to better ourselves. Forgiveness is key, otherwise the only person you’ll hurt is yourself.




Photo Credit
​"Saltine cracker family tradition: (vegetarian) New Mexican enchiladas" by happykatie is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
"Drive" by kaysha is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
"Phone" by Pete Prodoehl is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

"Love Hurts.." by LaurenHolloway is licensed under CC BY 2.0.