today a lady complained to our manager that all the black cashiers were on one side and all the white cashiers were on the other. this happened because the first three people who came in today went on the same side, and the next two people were told to fill in the other side... which is what happens every day. In a grocery store with (12?) cashiers, some who are white and some who are black, this will happen sometimes.
then my co-worker acted all condescending and argued with me about how it was totally necessary and reasonable for us to rearrange all the cashiers as a reaction to that complaint, and pulled out some freshman-year BS explanation about how her interpretation was just as valid as mine, etc.
This pissed me off especially because I do believe in relativism/multiculturalism/etc, but this is not a case of that. This is a case of a lady who didn't know anything about what was going on complaining and inconveniencing all of us. And our manager giving in to that. Framing this as equivalent to cultural tolerance only demeans actual cases where informed people disagree about substantive issues.
man, I just want a line to be drawn beyond which we will not acquiesce to customers' insane BS.
this lady even acknowledged that normally this isn't the case, and we are normally mixed around randomly... and used that to "prove" that our line-up was the result of "segregation."
also, I told my coworker that I hope the next step, as we worry about this happening again, is someone hearing "Martin, you're black, so go on that side."
(this coworker is not some random yahoo, he is working his way through getting his Masters degree in sociology. depressing.)