Customer service and faith clash at registers– When did the emergence of creepy self-rightousness appear in the USA? People who do this also think you are an infidel to be killed.
Beryl Dsouza was late and in no mood for delays when she stopped at a Target store after work two weeks ago for milk, bread and bacon.
So Dsouza was taken aback when the cashier — who had on the traditional headscarf, or hijab, worn by many Muslim women — refused to swipe the bacon through the checkout scanner.
“She made me scan the bacon. Then she opened the bag and made me put it in the bag,” said Dsouza, 53, of Minneapolis. “It made me wonder why this person took a job as a cashier.”
found by Julie B
Brew, if you recall, I stated I do not respect everyone nor do I respect everyone’s beliefs*…. and I do respect and love myself…. you’re just a little jealous because you’re not Satan. hmmm…. I’m trying to think of a deity that whines a lot…. I’m at a loss… but then, I’m not delusional like God claiming that I am infallible and all knowing…
OK, enough ribbing… really, though, people need to relax a little. If you voluntarily take a job as a cashier, then expect to scan pork or other offensive meat, or possibly dairy, products – and then get the hell over it. I have to put up with things at work that I don’t like. But I also like getting a paycheck, so I deal with it. (Mind you, I think this whole thing is more silly than infuriating, so I simply can’t take it too seriously. That doesn’t mean, of course, that I don’t also think it’s whiny and stupid.)
This whole thing, by the way, really doesn’t have anything to do with respect or disrespect. It’s a matter of one person not doing her job. The thing is, people seem to be way too sensitive these days. I have my philosophical and pseudo-spiritual beliefs. I also don’t shove them down anyone’s throat nor do I expect others’ to reorder their lives to accommodate any of my little quirks. Now, if someone were throwing rocks at me or burning down my house in protest, then that would be quite different. That would be oppression, and that’s just not right. There are too many people in this world that equate someone not agreeing with them or not going completely out of their way to accommodate some taboo to real oppression. (Not saying that this cashier is crying oppression – I’m actually speaking of the much larger whole when I say oppression) The thing is, no one was infringing upon the cashier’s civil rights (as she could have chosen a different job or asked to work in another department) The cashier is free to believe whatever she choses, and is free to practice her religion. But Target is free to sack her ass for not doing her job. Although, that might be a little harsh. If it really is such an issue for her, maybe she should ask to be moved to a different department in the store.
*From experience I’ve found that it is just stupid to respect every whiner that comes along just to be all PC. It would be like enabling an alcoholic. If you play into a whiner’s whining, you end up with a self-righteous whiner who believes he is not only entitled to be a whiner, but now expects everyone to fold under his whining. That would make for a very unpleasant world, now wouldn’t it?
#36 is proudly on the vanguard of the “How I want to lose america to anybody” movement.
#37 I didn’t know the cashier owned the store. Is the only whay she could have refused to sell bacon. Get your facts straight. Selling or not selling something is not on her job description (unless is selling alcohol to minors). Do her a favor, if she doesn’t like to do that job, get her out of there.
Now I know, today I’ll tell my boss to to anything I feel I don’t like for me. Let’s see how that goes. You should hang on with #36 more often.
#40 Bravo.
Did you ever think maybe the casher didn’t give a dame but saw this as a way to get fired and sue the store for wrongful dismissal.
Easy money in the land of the lawyer;-)
Did you ever think maybe the casher didn’t give a dam but saw this as a way to get fired and sue the store for wrongful dismissal.
Easy money in the land of the lawyer;-)
#42 – #36 is proudly on the vanguard of the “How I want to lose america to anybody” movement.
Wow… Now there is some grade A Fox News Quality Bullshit.
Although if you happen to be refering to the ultra right wing conservative, narrow minded Christian, xenophobic, kill it if its different, jingoheaded, nationalistic, white power, mouth breathing America… I’m not trying to lose that… I’m trying to give it away.
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You people scare the fuck out of me. This isn’t about which clerk is doing her job. Worrying about that is up to Skippy, the 19 year old shift supervisor. This is about blind and stupid hatred of Islam.
A bunch of Saudi nationals who were part of a terrorist network with a clear political agenda blew up some towers and killed a lot of people. Intelligent people would have gone after that terrorist network with a laser focused zeal. Instead, we went apeshit and our President, the village idiot, exploited the hysteria to destroy the one nation who kept that crap in check. This is all about hating Islam… and Islam is a religion that:
(A) most of America doesn’t know jack about
(B) is just as stupid as everyone else’s religion
But I guarantee you that if it were not for diligent civil rights minded liberals, true smaller government conservatives, and non Bible thumping citizens, the only difference between the US and the Middle East would be the name of the ancient Holy Text we based our draconian laws on. And I know that analogs to us exist there, but they are just beginning to wage thier long hard struggle against religious control.
You guys want to wage a Judeo-Christian Jihad against a woman who has a deeply held belief that she can’t touch bacon. Well… Okay… But the next time some Jesus Freak pharmacist wants to deny RU-486 to to customer, I want the thumper arrested and jailed.
I wanna lose America? I don’t hear anyone standing up for a single American idea here. I’m the only voice of America I hear. How freaking ironic. The woman doesn’t want to touch bacon. Get off her goddamn back and pay attention to something that is actually your business before this religious intolerance gets so far out of control that the US starts looking like the West Bank.
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#44 – Do you have any idea what you are talking about? Do you know what the profit would be for a wrongful termination suit from a Target cashier’s job? Find me a lawyer who rents a one bedroom apartment and drives a Geo Metro, and I’ll show you a guy who still won’t take that chump change case.
#45 – OFTLO
“This is about blind and stupid hatred of Islam.”
No it isn’t.
There’s no hatred involved. It’s about modern secular society’s declining to further capitulate to ignorant, primitive superstition – and placing the responsibility for being unwilling to perform one’s required job duties on the person who refuses to perform their job duties, and not on the employer, or on society in general. It’s about fairness.
Wanna believe in fairytales? Fine. “But,” as Billy Joel said, “not on my time.”
“A bunch of Saudi nationals who were part of a terrorist network with a clear political agenda…”
Well, in truth, a bunch of superstitous fanatics who were performing an act which they believed would be rewarded by 72 virgins and an idiot’s fantasy of other perks, all to be delivered in the afterlife. They did it, first and foremost, in the name of and for the honor of, a nonexistent deity. And this cashier’s refusal to do her job arises from exactly the same motive; complying with her chosen flavor of fairytale.
“…the next time some Jesus Freak pharmacist wants to deny RU-486 to to customer, I want the thumper arrested and jailed.”
But that’s a straw man.
No one has suggested that she be “arrested and jailed.” All that is expected of her is to make a choice of her own free will: either do her job, or take a different job that doesn’t require her to violate her beliefs. But not to inconvenience others and be exempted from job duties that are incumbent upon everyone else. Again, fairness.
“The woman doesn’t want to touch bacon.”
Tough fucking shit.
Then she had no business taking that job. No one held a gun to her head and no one is doing so now. She is demanding – like so many other fundamentalist idiots – that she be given license to impose her beliefs on everyone else. And that’s bullshit.
“…this religious intolerance..”
I’ve said it before. I’ll continue to say it. We, both as individuals and as a cohesive society, are under no ethical or moral obligation to tolerate stupidity, superstition or any other socially destructive influence.
We have assumed the obligation of permitting her – and anyone else – freedom to believe whatever ludicrous horseshit they happen to find agreeable.
But we don’t have to change our ways to placate her, when the conflict is one she created, by choices that she made.
Her beliefs are her business and she needs to keep them her business and not expect us to change for her.
hi! i dont understand why muslim people still live on free countries acting like slaves of their religion! it’s a pitty that the muslim youth don’t evolve and live a secular life like any other citzen in america or europe. sincerely i believe that these ‘great religions’ would soon bring the destruction of our beloved earth. so why dont you stop believing in ghosts today and start by drinking a good beer? cheers from brazil!