When you are black in America and have to navigate living and working around non-black people, you get used to dealing with racial microaggressions—statements which are directed at members of minority groups that reflect stereotypes and racial bias. Many of these microaggressions are not actually intended to cause harm, but the impact can serve to have a lasting effect—an ever constant reminder that we are seen as different and unrelatable. Racial microaggressions are not only experienced by black people. People of color can also be the recipients of them but certain microaggressions have a different meaning for blacks because of our long and complex history in this country.
And then there are the times when we have to deal with flat-out racism in the workplace. Because so many people have been willfully ignorant as to how pervasive racism is in our society, they’d be shocked to know how commonly this occurs. Of course, racial microaggressions are more likely to occur on a day-to-day basis but, in interracial workplaces, black folks also deal with our share of outright racism too. These instances are almost always painful. And sometimes they make it so that we feel as if are unable to work at all. Such is the case of Victor Sheppard, a deliveryman working in New York, who was given a noose by a butcher in a store where he was making a delivery.
Joe Ottomanelli passed Sheppard a hand-fashioned noose at the butcher shop on April 5 during a morning meat delivery.
“Here is your gift. You can put it around your neck and pull if you want to end it all,” Ottomanelli, 58, said, according to a criminal complaint.
“If you are feeling stressed out I can help you with it.”
As a result, Sheppard is now too traumatized to go back to work. He has since been let go on the claim that since he failed to show up for his duties on two separate occasions, so the company had no choice but to assume he had abandoned his position.
Victor Sheppard says he was not comfortable returning to his job with Hunts Point meat distributor Mosner Family Brands because it continued to serve the Bleecker St. butcher shop following the disturbing “gift.” [...]
“It’s not easy returning to an environment where you mean nothing.”
Because of how privilege and racism work, right now someone is finding a way to justify this act. No matter how horrible this is (and it is truly loathsome), someone is reading or hearing about Victor and saying to themselves, “I get it. It’s terrible. But he should just get over it and find a new route to deliver to.” Rest assured, this person is probably not black. If they are, they have found a way to cope with white supremacy by deluding themselves into thinking that this isn’t as bad as it is. And who can blame them? There are few things worse than being an adult and suddenly having your humanity stripped away and reduced to nothingness. The fear, anxiety and stress produced by racism are real and nooses are a physical manifestation of that—one that serves to take away black people’s power and dignity. When white people wield them against us, it is not a joke. It is a cruel reference to history, a time when they could kill blacks whenever they so chose for what they perceived as “stepping out of line.” It is, simply put, an act of terror.
Sheppard's attorney Wylie Stecklow insisted the 37-year-old couldn’t continue to work.
“Victor could not return to that environment. His employer knew exactly what happened and was supportive but they never stopped doing business with Ottomanelli,” Stecklow said.
He added that Sheppard is “unable to sleep through the night and unsure when his life will return to normal.”
Sheppard was offered free counseling through his employer which he chose not to pursue. He was also offered a new delivery route. But let’s face it—why in the world would he want to take a risk in coming into contact with another racist customer? And the fact that the employer had offered alternatives but never stopped doing business with the butcher likely left him with serious doubts about working with them ever again. Who in their right mind would want to continue employment with an employer that is aware that a customer threatened your life but still continues to do business with them? That would be enough to stress out anyone and to keep them up at night.
For his part, the butcher, Joe Ottomanelli (who was charged with a hate crime), claims that no malice was intended by passing the noose to Sheppard in the first place. That it was just a bad joke. This is how disgusting this person is—that he thinks his actions are the same as if he had told a vulgar “your momma” joke. His lawyer “admits the noose ordeal was ‘hateful and deplorable’ but argues it was an inappropriate prank and not a crime.” Well, here’s some food for thought: nothing about racism is funny. Nooses and evoking the memories of the lynching of thousands of black people are especially not humorous. Sheppard has not filed a lawsuit in this case. But perhaps, he should. Let’s see how funny Ottomanelli would think it is should a jury decide he should actually pay cash to Sheppard for his vile sense of humor.