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kindkitThe last few days have not been good, emotionally.
Work related badness (including attempted violence not directed at me) under the cut. So, the day before yesterday a customer (apparently white and male) got kicked out of the store for general bad behavior, including shouting "hijo de puta madre" at various people. (Note: he did not sound like a native speaker of Spanish; he was using Spanish for the lulz, apparently.) Later that same day, he came back with a friend. I was the first one to spot that he was back--I wouldn't have recognized him if he hadn't spoken to me in the same creepy, over-familiar way he had the first time--and called for management. At which point he and his buddy, who had both been hanging out near a jewelry display in an unusual manner for two men, were asked to leave the store again. Shouting ensued, and White Dude shoved a manager (and then tried to claim the manager hit him, which was a lie), and eventually left the store with his buddy, shouting all the while. One of the things he shouted was what turned out to be a co-op membership number, which one of the cashiers was quick-thinking enough to write down, and which eventually provided White Dude's name and address.
The manager, MK, and a couple of other staff followed White Dude and his buddy (also a dude, maybe white or maybe Latino) out to the parking lot to try to get a license plate number. I wasn't there for this part, but apparently White Dude did some more shoving, raised his fist to another manager but didn't swing at him, and eventually he and his buddy got into their car and tried to back into MK, who had to jump out of the way.
Cops were called (yeah, I know, but White Dude and also attempted vehicular homicide), information taken, etc.
Yesterday: White Dude, in his car, returns, attempts to run down a different staff member, and eventually deliberately mows his car into our outside seating area (not currently in use) and some carts that were there being sanitized. Then drives off. Cops are called again, and this time they're actually getting a warrant for the guy's arrest.
I'm . . . a little worried. Both because I'm the one who got him kicked out the second time, and also because he seems to want to hurt anybody who works at the store. I don't think he could find me at home or anything, but I'm hoping he's actually arrested before he turns up at the store with a knife or a gun, or, you know, just drives his car right into someone.
Then yesterday there was other ordinary pain-in-the-ass work stuff on top of it, and I ran out of cope and ended up leaving an hour early, feeling emotionally wrecked.
The other thing is that Rusty Quill, which has been a huge source of comfort to me over the past few months, is not quite as comforting as it was. More under the cut. For those who haven't heard: Mike fucked up. He tweeted something--I didn't see the actual tweet before he deleted it--that was basically scolding protesters for not being "peaceful" and he used the hashtag #AllLivesMatter.
Someone informed him that #AllLivesMatter is a racist dogwhistle, and he deleted and apologized for the hashtag. That tweet is still up the last I checked, included a number of responses from people (patiently) calling him out about the contents of the original tweet itself and asking him to educate himself about white privilege, police violence against BIPOC, etc.
Rusty Quill had no official response for a couple of days, which frustrated a lot of folks. They've now posted that they're working out what to do and will be making an official statement soon. Mike is being referred to as "one of our colleagues" rather than mentioned by name, and his usual slot in the Rusty Quill Streams timeline is listed as "TBA." There seems to be a non-zero chance that Mike will be fired.
I really don't know how I feel about this, apart from desperately wishing that Mike had had better sense than say what he said. On the one hand, I do think he is genuinely clueless enough not to have realized either that #AllLivesMatter is racist or that a white dude opining about the behavior of black people protesting against the police murders of black people is generally a bad idea. On the other hand, being that clueless is an aspect of white privilege, and he needs to learn some fucking lessons. On the other other hand, just the day before that tweet, he donated $50 to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which among other goals provides bail money to arrested protesters (several RQ folks were doing it, including Lydia, Sasha, and Jonny). I don't think he's deliberately racist. On the other other other hand, in the streams, Mike has said some other really dodgy things. I've heard him do a "black American" accent that had Anil telling him, jokingly but also not, "Mike, never do that voice again." In another stream, he apparently made some kind of joke about Buddhism that resulted in Anil telling him seriously to knock it off (I haven't watched it myself).
I do want Rusty Quill to make a stand saying that racism is unacceptable. I don't want Mike to be fired. (I don't mean there shouldn't be consequences. A suspension while he has a good long think and reads some books or does some trainings, and then writes up a proper apology, sounds appropriate to me. But also, I'm white, and what strikes me as clueless white privilege without malicious intentions may strike BIPOC very differently.)
I'm glad I'm not Alex right now.
I'm even more glad I'm not Helen or Anil, both of whom have been on Discord trying to keep everything calm. God only knows what they're feeling, as a black woman and a non-black POC, and as Mike's friends.
What a fucking mess. All because one white dude didn't know how to recognize his ignorance/privilege and shut up.
ETA: The official Rusty Quill response has been posted here. It seems pretty good to me; some consequences and some education for Mike, but he doesn't lose his job. And some steps in place to prevent anything like this happening again.
Work related badness (including attempted violence not directed at me) under the cut. So, the day before yesterday a customer (apparently white and male) got kicked out of the store for general bad behavior, including shouting "hijo de puta madre" at various people. (Note: he did not sound like a native speaker of Spanish; he was using Spanish for the lulz, apparently.) Later that same day, he came back with a friend. I was the first one to spot that he was back--I wouldn't have recognized him if he hadn't spoken to me in the same creepy, over-familiar way he had the first time--and called for management. At which point he and his buddy, who had both been hanging out near a jewelry display in an unusual manner for two men, were asked to leave the store again. Shouting ensued, and White Dude shoved a manager (and then tried to claim the manager hit him, which was a lie), and eventually left the store with his buddy, shouting all the while. One of the things he shouted was what turned out to be a co-op membership number, which one of the cashiers was quick-thinking enough to write down, and which eventually provided White Dude's name and address.
The manager, MK, and a couple of other staff followed White Dude and his buddy (also a dude, maybe white or maybe Latino) out to the parking lot to try to get a license plate number. I wasn't there for this part, but apparently White Dude did some more shoving, raised his fist to another manager but didn't swing at him, and eventually he and his buddy got into their car and tried to back into MK, who had to jump out of the way.
Cops were called (yeah, I know, but White Dude and also attempted vehicular homicide), information taken, etc.
Yesterday: White Dude, in his car, returns, attempts to run down a different staff member, and eventually deliberately mows his car into our outside seating area (not currently in use) and some carts that were there being sanitized. Then drives off. Cops are called again, and this time they're actually getting a warrant for the guy's arrest.
I'm . . . a little worried. Both because I'm the one who got him kicked out the second time, and also because he seems to want to hurt anybody who works at the store. I don't think he could find me at home or anything, but I'm hoping he's actually arrested before he turns up at the store with a knife or a gun, or, you know, just drives his car right into someone.
Then yesterday there was other ordinary pain-in-the-ass work stuff on top of it, and I ran out of cope and ended up leaving an hour early, feeling emotionally wrecked.
The other thing is that Rusty Quill, which has been a huge source of comfort to me over the past few months, is not quite as comforting as it was. More under the cut. For those who haven't heard: Mike fucked up. He tweeted something--I didn't see the actual tweet before he deleted it--that was basically scolding protesters for not being "peaceful" and he used the hashtag #AllLivesMatter.
Someone informed him that #AllLivesMatter is a racist dogwhistle, and he deleted and apologized for the hashtag. That tweet is still up the last I checked, included a number of responses from people (patiently) calling him out about the contents of the original tweet itself and asking him to educate himself about white privilege, police violence against BIPOC, etc.
Rusty Quill had no official response for a couple of days, which frustrated a lot of folks. They've now posted that they're working out what to do and will be making an official statement soon. Mike is being referred to as "one of our colleagues" rather than mentioned by name, and his usual slot in the Rusty Quill Streams timeline is listed as "TBA." There seems to be a non-zero chance that Mike will be fired.
I really don't know how I feel about this, apart from desperately wishing that Mike had had better sense than say what he said. On the one hand, I do think he is genuinely clueless enough not to have realized either that #AllLivesMatter is racist or that a white dude opining about the behavior of black people protesting against the police murders of black people is generally a bad idea. On the other hand, being that clueless is an aspect of white privilege, and he needs to learn some fucking lessons. On the other other hand, just the day before that tweet, he donated $50 to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which among other goals provides bail money to arrested protesters (several RQ folks were doing it, including Lydia, Sasha, and Jonny). I don't think he's deliberately racist. On the other other other hand, in the streams, Mike has said some other really dodgy things. I've heard him do a "black American" accent that had Anil telling him, jokingly but also not, "Mike, never do that voice again." In another stream, he apparently made some kind of joke about Buddhism that resulted in Anil telling him seriously to knock it off (I haven't watched it myself).
I do want Rusty Quill to make a stand saying that racism is unacceptable. I don't want Mike to be fired. (I don't mean there shouldn't be consequences. A suspension while he has a good long think and reads some books or does some trainings, and then writes up a proper apology, sounds appropriate to me. But also, I'm white, and what strikes me as clueless white privilege without malicious intentions may strike BIPOC very differently.)
I'm glad I'm not Alex right now.
I'm even more glad I'm not Helen or Anil, both of whom have been on Discord trying to keep everything calm. God only knows what they're feeling, as a black woman and a non-black POC, and as Mike's friends.
What a fucking mess. All because one white dude didn't know how to recognize his ignorance/privilege and shut up.
ETA: The official Rusty Quill response has been posted here. It seems pretty good to me; some consequences and some education for Mike, but he doesn't lose his job. And some steps in place to prevent anything like this happening again.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-02 06:21 pm (UTC)I think this is the statement they were talking about, and I'm glad it also mentioned developing social media guidelines, that's apparently very necessary.
I also briefly checked out the discussion on the RQ Discord server about how to handle political topics in the future, after some people were disappointed with how the mods handled some things - poor Anil must have so much to do right now, it's high time he gets an assistant.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-02 06:44 pm (UTC)And yeah, poor Anil. Having to handle the social media presence of a big fandom during a crisis is bad enough in itself, even without all the personal pain that I imagine the whole situation caused him.
I think they're in the process of hiring him an assistant; they recently reached the fundraising goal to do it.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-02 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-02 07:13 pm (UTC)I'm hoping they can keep Jonny on board to do a new show of some kind. I love RQG and I like SF well enough, but Magnus has been the making of Rusty Quill. Jonny's probably been getting a lot of offers from a lot of places.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-02 07:10 pm (UTC)No, that sounds rotten, and the sort of things that make you feel both physically unsafe and deprived of a safe space to put your mind. I'm sorry. I hope attempted vehicular homicide dude does not return and the show figures out a genuinely appropriate response. [edit] I am glad to see the show's response. I still hope you do not have to deal further with the dude at the store.
*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2020-06-02 07:17 pm (UTC)Seeing Rusty Quill's response has been a weight off my mind. I am, to put it diplomatically, fairly emotionally invested in RQ and all its work and all its people. And the thought of that all imploding in horribleness was really upsetting.
That just leaves my actual life to deal with . . .
no subject
Date: 2020-06-02 09:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-03 01:04 am (UTC)I'm willing to wait for him to feel ready to say something, but when he does, I hope it shows he's really trying.
he's our token dumb jock
Yeah. I mean, he's not a bully, which I what I personally associate with the term "dumb jock," but he does come across as someone who has never had to think very deeply about very much.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-03 12:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-03 09:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-03 10:43 pm (UTC)It sounds like Rusty Quill was on top of things and acted swiftly once Mike said the awful thing.