Just A Little Respect



Atsome place in your life…you reach your breaking point. We all have one. There are things we can effectively deal with and there are things we cannot: whether it’s micro-aggressions, racism, misogyny, or just office space jealousy and downright pettiness.

Maya Angelou had reached her limit. By age eighteen, she had survived growing up in the Deep South and dealing with very racist White people who wouldn’t have blinked an eye at un-aliving her if given the slightest provocation or excuse, she had survived being sexually assaulted by her stepfather, she had grown up and taken jobs that were formerly closed off to people of color, and she had a child all at eighteen years of age. Reading through her memoirs, you get the sense that she had lived several lifetimes. I would think that she was deserving of some respect if not some basic human dignity.

Sadly, there are people in this world that are incapable of giving people either. They think they are above a specific class of people and make their disdain known.
Maya got a job in a restaurant that specialized in Cajun-Creole food. This is where she learned to use lies of omission or outright. She had no experience in cooking but let the owner know she had worked for a White family down in Arkansas which was true, but she had gained no specialized cooking skills or experience. She said words in a sentence and let the owner fill in the blanks. One of the head cooks must have picked up on her lack of cooking and taken her aside to show her the different seasonings that went with various dishes and which dishes were most in demand. Eventually, she was proficient in both the kitchen and waiting tables.