The question game
Katress asked me the 5 questions below.
The rules to the game are below.
1 -- Leave a comment if you want to be interviewed.
2 -- I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 -- You'll update your diary with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 -- You'll include this explanation.
5 -- You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
1. Unfortunately many people judge a person by how they look. Being gay and black, you've said that you get a double-whammy as most of the black community is quite judgmental. Explain why you think that is.
God such a hard question but here goes. I can not speak for the Black community as I feel most that as in community there is diversity and multiplicity that I may or may not fall into. I feel that the Black community as a whole is very conservative. I think that the reason behind that is that Black people in general seem to be. (I hope you get me dancing on the fence here) seem to depend on religion as a strong hold on morality. So when it comes to homosexuality I think that a lot of people in the Black community fall back to the old standards where this is right and this is wrong. I also feel that like most American�s, Black people feel that being gay is a choice. So in their eyes here is a Black man in a community where so many of Black men are in prison, and they are choosing to live a life that is out of the norm. These are of course only my opinions as I stated in the beginning it�s hard for me to speak for the Black community as a whole.
2. How do you feel that September 11th has impacted your job?
It has impacted my job in so many ways. But the first way is obviously financial. Before September 11 my airline was making money hand over fist. I don�t really now why but we were. Well anyone who is alive and even passes by CNN or CNN headline news realizes the fact that the airline industry is in deep trouble. Now I say that, but in my eyes I think the airline industry was in trouble anyway because it was trying to be too much to too many people by trying to be in the transportation business while also trying to run a restaurant and movie theater inside the transportation business. If you look at the airlines that are making money they are no frills. There are no meals, there�s no first class. It�s all about the transportation.
Now the way the 9-11 has affected me as a flight attendant is enormous. A lot of it is security that I can�t really talk about. But there�s the Sky marshals who are on some flights and the way we deal with the cockpit and the contract workers who cater and clean the airplane. But for me personally it�s about the safety. No matter when I go to work or how long my trip is. There is some point during the trip where I think about what happen on 9-11. From what I heard on all of the airplanes that were hijacked, all of the male flight attendants were killed first. I�m not sure if it�s true but that�s what was circulated around the airline industry. So I want you to picture this scenario. You�re on an airplane and the majority or all of the bathrooms are in the back of the airplane. I�m Joe Friendly flight attendant doing beverages from the front of the airplane to the back. You want to go to the bathroom and you want me to move the cart so you can go pee. So you walk up behind me and I feel your presence. This scenario happens every single day I go to work I promise you. So you get up and you stand behind me letting me know with your body language that you want me to move the cart so you can go to the lavatory. Well before September 11 you were just a pain in the ass but now in my mind I�m nervous. I�m thinking that maybe you are a hijacker who wants to take over the plane so I turn constantly turning around and asking you want you want, and not always in the nicest manner. Also now I look at people more on the airplane. I look at how you�re dressed. It�s not a profiling thing or at least I hope it�s not but I loot at people who are in first class. If you are going to NYC on the 5 pm flight I wanna see you in a suit or I wanna see you with work in your hands if you�re just sitting in your seat not doing anything just looking into space, no matter what nationality you are, I personally will keep an eye on you. I wouldn�t have done that before September 11th.
3. Being "nice" at work is tough. I work in the industry as well and sometimes people just don't think the rules apply to them. How do you handle a difficult passenger?
I�m pretty stern at work when it comes to the basic safety rules. I think, even though it�s going to sound sexist, it�s easier for a male because I have two different types of tones. I have the everyday tone that I use when I politely as you to follow whatever rules I want you to do. If you refuse I have what one of my friends call the �don�t mess with the angry black man.� It�s much deeper than my normal tone of voices and because I�m not a small person I will usually do some body language like crossing my arms are doing the �severe� eye contact. It usually works for me. In reality I�m not good at dealing with the difficult passenger because I�m not good at letting it drop. If I have to have a confrontation about one of the basic rules i.e. cell phones or lap tops use after we leave the gate (these are the majority of my problems.) I carry it with me for a long time because I don�t understand why these people don�t either understand that the rules apply to them too or why they were too self absorbed not the hear the bazillion p.a.�s that were made regarding the subject.
4. Atlanta is a fun city! What made you decide to move there over somewhere else?
Atlanta to me always held a sort of mystery. Even though I was born here. I left when I was 6 months old. We would come here to visit my grandmother every year and would always venture around. When I was in college I had an internship where I lived in NYC for 3 months. I loved it but I realized that I would never be able to afford it. But I loved the fact that unlike the Pacific Northwest I could dress in something more than jeans and flannel and I would be accepted. So I knew after I returned that I would move back to the east coast. When I was hired by my airline I had about 6 cities to chose from but Atlanta kept pulling me to it because I felt a familiarity to it but in hindsight I think I probably made the wrong choice. I�m definitely a west coast person at heart and I can honestly say that in my opinion Atlanta has the most arrogant self absorbed people. It would put L.A. to shame.
5. If there was one thing that you could change about the world, what would it be?
Ok this sounds so Ms. America but the one thing that I change about this world is its intolerance. Especially here in the US. Now, that being said, there�s no place else I would want to live. There is more freedom and tolerance here that I think any place in the world but sometimes I forget that this country was built on dissention. It was built on different points of view. Unfortunately I feel that this world is so judgmental about some thing but turns the other cheek on others. This whole thing with the War on Iraq and the division that occurred really bothered me. It bothered me that if you were for the war then you were some right wing wacko who just wanted to see women and little babies killed and if you were against the war they you were Un-patriotic, hated American and were against the troops in Iraq. The fact that a lot us fell into rhetoric pool really bothered me. If I could change this world I would make us all a little bit more tolerant of others and their opinions.
If you want to be asked 5 questions made up by me email me or leave a comment in my guestbook.
My Weather
