My niece is an amazing woman. A schoolteacher, she is raising two boys on her own. But now she has help from her long-time boyfriend. They are a stunning couple, she is blond, 6’ tall (I call her my Amazon), and he is black and 7’ tall, and very nicely built (I’m old, not blind!) He wants to be a good role model to her 11 and 15 year old sons, and has good relationships with them.
The boys have lots of activities, in which my niece and her boyfriend support and help them. They also have fun together, and some time ago they had bought tickets for a comedy show at the local Coliseum. Then life intervened; the youngest had joined a baseball league and they had their first game today, and the oldest one, who is in a high-ranked high school marching band, placed into a competition today. Kids come first, comedy show’s off.
So the other day, the boyfriend went to the box office to get a refund on the tickets. He was courteous and calm as he always is, but the guy told him, sorry, no refunds, it’s policy, blah blah. He explained that an emergency had come up and they couldn’t make the show, Same response. He asked to see a manager. The guy went to the back, came back and told him that the manager couldn’t see him right now but that the answer was still the same. So he left, still polite and no attitude.
He called my niece and told her what happened and asked, “would you please go give it a shot?” She agreed and went there herself, He had told her that he didn’t go into detail about the boys having commitments that had just come up. She tried to wait to see the same guy but there was another clerk there and she finally spoke with her, not wanting to look as if she were avoiding her. She also did not tell her that her bf had been there a few hours ago.
Same story, so she asked to see a manager. This time one came out and actually suggested that she scalp the tickets on Craigslist or something. She was shocked and said, “That’s illegal and I’m not doing that!” She asked for another manager and one was produced. She explained that the ticket prices had dropped but that they had paid full price and needed a full refund. She also told them the whole story about the boys’ activities, FINALLY they gave her a refund. On the boyfriend’s credit card, the one with a man’s non Anglo-Saxon name on it. They didn’t even ask her for ID.
When she and her boyfriend met back up at home, they called the Coliseum management and gave them the whole story, Of course, the excuses flew, “well, she gave us more information than he did, that the boys had things come up, blah blah”. Of course I called bullshit on that. She said they sent him a “nice letter of apology”, and I called bullshit on that, too. I said, “take that nice letter of apology straight to the media, send it to the local rag, and to “2 Wants to Know”, the local CBS affiliate that’s always trolling for stories of interest.
We agreed that what she had told them didn’t have a damn thing to do with it and there was only one reason she was able to get the refund when he wasn’t. I was livid. I told her about that woman at the corner store in NYC who scared that little boy to death and accused him of sexual assault after accidentally bumping her hind end with his backpack, and about that asshole in Michigan who had fired (fortunately he was a lousy shot) at the kid just trying to get to school.
She related to the Babysitting while Black stories, and we shared about the looks and the comments (my first husband was Chinese). I was so livid over this crap though, I told her to give her man a hug for me and we’ll just have to keep fighting. Her own mother treats him like crap, she’s a racist bitch and I almost kicked her out of MY mother’s funeral because she was being so rude to him.
OK, rant over, at least until next time. And sadly, I’m sure there will BE a next time.
Edited to add — it has been pointed out that many events do not refund ticket prices for any reason. I am aware of that, however, as stated above, this venue sent the black man in question a “nice letter of apology”. My question is, for what? Why would they apologize if they had done nothing but uphold their policy?