Those people who believe that racism isn’t an issue in America any longer must be either innocent or silly. It looks like Americans have long road to go until they stop seeing people as different because of the color of their skin.
Marcus Bradley is a black man who has experienced racism and believes his company did nothing to protect him in the case. Namely, Bradley was a delivery truck driver for Lowe’s hardware chain in Danville, Virginia, for over 10 years and he never believed his manager wouldn’t stand for him when a customer asked for him to be replaced with a white driver for her delivery.
It was back in 2015 when Bradley delivered a truck full of items at a designated house and was about to get back to the store for the rest of the goods when he got a call from the manager. He told him Bradley won’t be getting back because the customer complained. When Bradley asked what he did wrong, the manager said the woman didn’t want a black man at her house.
Neither Bradley nor his colleague Alex Brooke, who was with him in the truck at the time, could believe what they had just heard.
“To me, you know, it just ain’t right for a business that we work in to go on with the woman’s wishes,” Alex said. They weren’t that mad at the customer as they were with the manager who put the client’s absurd wish before the loyal employee.
Once back at the store, another driver, a white one, was assigned for the delivery instead of Bradley and that’s when Brook refused to take part in the delivery as well. So Brook was the only person who stood by Bradley and the company replaced both of them for this particular delivery.
Bradley was very upset because his company did nothing to protect him.
Local news tried reaching the racist customer who kept saying she had all the right to choose who delivers things to her house and didn’t feel remorse for asking the company to replace Bradley with another employee. “No, I don’t feel bad about nothing,” she said.
In a statement, Lowe’s said that how their manager “handled” the issue with the rude customer doesn’t correspond with their policy and they are sad Bradley, a loyal employee of many years, had to go through something that upsetting and humiliating. The manager in question has since been fired.
“Under no circumstances should a discriminatory delivery request be honored as it is inconsistent with our diversity and inclusion core values and the request should have been refused,” the statement read.
This incident took place five years ago, and that only speaks of the fact that not much has changed regarding the issue of racism in our country.