From Vandal To Victor...

Trigger Warning: Racial Discrimination; Racial Tension

Meeka Wentworth was excited to begin her first day working at the ever-busy Financial Aid office at Stapleton University in Sandalwood, CA. Forty candidates had competed for the coveted Computer Aide position; only three were chosen.

The heavy wooden office door swung open slowly, revealing a pretty Caucasian woman who looked to be on the verge of becoming a quadragenarian.

The young woman was dressed impeccably. She wore a purple & grey striped, silk blouse, an eggplant-colored leather pantsuit, and a pair of grey leather snake-skinned ankle boots. Her fine, dark-blonde hair was neatly swept up into a tight French Roll that made her look nearly a decade older. Mother of Pearl earrings, a matching necklace, and a purple, silk headband adorned with a gigantic grey seashell completed her sophisticated look.  

"Hola! I am Miss Bee. I am so pleased to have you on board my friends!" the Taylor Swift look-alike exclaimed a little too enthusiastically as she motioned for each of the new recruits to have a seat at a long table in the middle of the room.

"I bet all three of you are eager to learn more about your work assignments!" Miss Bee proclaimed excitedly.

"I'll start with you two," Miss Bee said as she pointed in the general direction of a wiry, po-faced Latinx guy with a tattoo of a mermaid on his left bicep and a tall, red-haired, Caucasian girl with shamrock-green glitter heavily dusted on her eyelids and a horseshoe-shaped nose ring occupying her left nostril.

"Rodrigo Torres and Makenzie Lewis, you both will be stationed out in the front lobby at our computer kiosk area. You will be responsible for answering any basic financial aid questions that students may have. You will also be assisting students with completing their online FAFSA forms. Also, any complex financial aid questions that you receive should be forwarded to me," Miss Bee said authoritatively.

"How does that sound, Rodrigo and Makenzie?" Miss Bee asked cheerfully.

"Kool," Nose Ring Girl, and Mermaid Boy replied in unison. Each collectively managing to muster up the enthusiasm of two deceased fruitflies.

Miss Bee turned to her left, and without looking Meeka in the eye, she nonchalantly said:

"As for you, Myesha Bentfork, most of the day you will be working in the back office supply room shredding documents. You will also be responsible for making coffee runs for me and my staff for our morning meetings and for cleaning and sanitizing our student computers at the beginning of your shift before our student population arrives for the day."

Directly following announcing Meeka's work assignment, Miss Bee purposely avoided making eye contact with Meeka by becoming overly transfixed on a spot on her blouse. Apparently, a tiny dollop of toothpaste had run away from home and had found a new residence atop a button on the front of Miss Bee's blouse, and it had suddenly become the most fascinating thing in the world to her.

"Uh, okay... but will I get to work with the students tomorrow?" Meeka inquired politely without bothering to correct her boss's mispronunciation of her name.

"Maybe next semester, hon. We have all the help in the front lobby that we need right now," Miss Bee responded expeditiously, a saccharine smile quickly forming on her diminutive red lips.

"The ad indicated that there were three Computer Aide openings available in the Financial Aid department," Meeka replied calmly.

"Was the original ad incorrect?" Meeka asked straightforwardly, a look of confusion slowly spreading across her cocoa-brown face as she spoke.

"There was originally a third Computer Aide position available, but we found someone to fill it. My stepdaughter Mimi has graciously volunteered to fill in while Rodrigo and Makenzie are in class. So we're all set in the Computer Aide department," Miss Bee replied quickly.

Wasn't that sweet of her?" Miss Bee added with a Cheshire grin.

"Yeah... I guess so... but was there some reason why I wasn't chosen to work upfront this semester?" Meeka asked with a hint of apprehension in her voice.

"Honesty is always the best policy in my book, so I guess I better level with you, hon. I found Mimi, Rodrigo, and Makenzie to be the best choices to represent the face of Stapleton University's Financial Aid department because of the special pride that they take in their appearance. "

"At the end of the day, we are an institution of higher education, and we must be mindful of our image at all times. As one of the gatekeepers of this great establishment, it pains me to see all of the rap video emulations and ghetto aesthetics that have begun to spring up around campus. Such visual monstrosities are low class and have no place in academia; they actually belong in the trash can," Miss Bee declared adamantly.

"As one of the top universities in the country, we must put our best foot forward at all times. I hope that you understand my logic, Myesha," Miss Bee concluded as she eyed Meeka's box braids like they were a visible-to-the-eye venereal disease that might reach out and infect her at any moment.

Meeka was in complete shock about the differential treatment that she was experiencing. She'd never experienced anything like it in all of her nearly 20 years. She suddenly realized that the stereotypes associated with her long braided hairstyle and African-American heritage were being used as an excuse to limit her employment opportunities at Stapleton University.

As hard as she tried, Meeka simply couldn't understand Miss Bee's viewpoint. Horseshoe-shaped nose rings and mermaid tattoos were acceptable in the workplace, yet her beautiful waterfall of box braids were seen as trashy? Make it make sense! The double standard literally made Meeka sick to her stomach. It didn't matter that she was dressed modestly in a pink dress suit and tights; unfortunately, she would always be seen as a ghetto, bum-gyrating, low-class, hood rat-rap video girl by closed-minded bigots like Miss Bee.

Meeka simply couldn't believe how her day was shaping up. Earlier that morning, she had been followed around the CVS store across the street from campus for thirty minutes like she was some type of criminal, and now, less than an hour later, she was being judged yet again for the way that she looked? 

Meeka could feel her face flushing and her ears growing warm, but she would not blow her lid publicly; she refused to let her adversary see her sweat.

Meeka decided that the story wouldn't end there; she had an idea.

"Excuse me for a moment, everyone. I have to use the lavatory," Meeka blurted out as she walk-ran out of the room.

Once Meeka made it into the safety of the courtyard outside, she immediately let out a visceral scream. Once she regained her calm, she reentered the building and headed into the malodorous, graffiti-wallpapered rest room nearby. Once inside, she reached into her purse and pulled out her favorite fire-engine red lip color, then sloppily wrote: 'Miss Bee from Financial Aid is a Racist Bigot!' on the lavatory mirror in cursive, then she quickly sprinted outside to her car and headed back home for the day.

Meeka didn't know if she would come back in a couple of hours to erase her big revelation, but for now, it felt good to be an anonymous whistleblower.

Epilogue: You know, I couldn't allow my girl to go out like that! LOL 😂

Alternate Ending: Meeka felt a sudden prick in her conscience. She knew that the Lord didn't like ugly therefore she returned to the campus lavatory armed with a can of Scrubbing Bubbles and a bottle of Windex and proceeded to erase her mistake. She knew in her heart of hearts that the mirror stunt was childish, not to mention a load of passive aggressive bullcrap. 

After speaking to her academic counselor about the incident the next day, Meeka learned that the campus Diversity Office had recently hired an Equity Officer to investigate and to correct potential incidents of discrimination on campus.

Meeka decided to take a chance by reporting her discriminatory encounter with Miss Bee to the campus Equity office.

It turned out that Meeka was not the only African-American that Miss Bee had mistreated. In fact, over the last nine months, five African-American employment applicants had been asked inappropriate questions about their wardrobe choices & hairstyle preferences during their in-person interviews with Miss Bee, and because of the sheer volume of complaints that Miss Bee had received, she was immediately placed on administrative leave while a formal investigation took place. 

If Miss Bee were in fact found guilty of discrimination, she would be immediately let go.

Approximately one month and one day after Meeka filed a formal complaint against Miss Bee, Miss Bee was found guilty of implementing discriminatory employment practices against African-Americans in the workplace and was promptly fired as a result.

Meeka reapplied and was rehired to work in the Financial Aid department. Fortunately, this time around, she worked for a very kind and respectful supervisor, a Willie Nelson doppelganger named Mr. Mitchell. Under Mr. Mitchell's tutelage, within eight months, Meeka Wentworth became second in command in the Financial Aid Office.

Meeka was super proud that she had handled her moment of hardship with grace. At the end of the day, it truly felt good to go from a vandal to a victor.

The End :)