Salisbury, Maryland: In 2016, a customer called in to Makiah’s work, and thought that the color of Makiah’s skin made her unfit to help her.
--
Questions for discussion and reflection:
• Why do you think the woman on the phone even thought to ask whether Makiah was white or Black? Because of her name? The way she talked? Something else? In what ways can that be problematic to assume someone’s race based off those things?
• Why do you think the woman cared what color Makiah’s skin was? If someone’s skin doesn’t determine their skill level or competence in a task, why do people have assumptions that it does?
• When confronted with a situation where you could choose to lie about who you are (to potentially make things easier) or choose to be honest about who you are, (like Makiah), which option do you lean towards? Why?
--
Find Makiah on YouTube.
