Before I even step foot in Walmart, I ask the Lord to cover my day. I’m not the type to walk in with an attitude—I smile, I greet, I do my job. But every now and then, somebody walks in like they’re auditioning for a role in “Let Me Test Her Patience.”
One Saturday evening, a man around 41 walks up to my register. His total? $4.68. He hands me a $5 bill and 68 cents in Canadian coins. Now listen—everybody and their 4-year-old knows we don’t take Canadian money in the U.S. So, I say, “Sir, we don’t take Canadian coins.” He hits me with, “WHY? Where’s the sign that says that?”
I told him, “Ain’t no sign. We just don’t take Canadian money.” I finish the transaction out of the $5, and he suddenly wants a refund. I asked him why? He says because I want to know where is the sign that says no Canadian money. This thang clearly wanted to argue with me. So, I said well in order to get your money back I will have to call a CSM. He was like call em then. Because he didn’t like how I said it. Said I wasn’t “professional.” Mr. Sir Man, ** didn’t say all that LOL* what other way is there to say “we don’t take Canadian money”?
My CSM, comes over. He doesn’t want to talk to her. She tried to talk to him but he gon say. I don’t want to speak to YOU, I WANT TO SPEAK TO SOMEONE HIGHER!!!! So here comes our Assistant Manager. And this man tells him that I wasn’t professional. Says he used to work for Walmart. Well then, sir—you should know the policy!
He refused to sign the refund slip. Tried to snatch the money from my hand. But I held firm. I knew if he acted out, everything he said about me would crumble. So, he took the money politely and walked away. But I could feel that he wanted to snatch it so bad. I was cracking up in my mind!
💭 My Question to You:
Why do some folks take “NO” so personally? Like the rule was made just for them. Do you feel like you’re always right when you’re out in public—at a store, restaurant, wherever?
Inside the mind of cree 
I think I had written about my deja vu with Detroit. I had always had this mysterious experience with Detroit.
I had always had this strange mystery growing up in the City of the Bronx, USA. Don’t remember ever living anywhere else but upon the border lines of what separates Harlem from the Bronx, the Harlem River above Wilson Avenue Bridge.
My orientation of Detroit was that it was “national murder capital”
of the USA. It was depicted as the notorious state of the Union. The sixteen novels written by Donald Goines depicted social crisis in life the ghettos of the street life of Detriot. My dad used to come to Detroit, my sister moved there in the late 70s, and a national broadcast illustrated this Detroit as the worst City in the State of the Union. So of course, I had this feeling about Detroit I never wanted to go there but I knew it was promoted as the City in the Union.
I had a friend Herb Boyd in Harlem, USA a native of Detroit who came to NYC sometime during the civil rights era.
Perhaps earlier. To worked
as an editor, professor, and journalist. I had been seeing him in Harlem, lots of social events, on the streets of Harlem, NYC gawking casual gestures.
Later I got into his books. He wrote several novels that caught my attention. I resonated with his Harlem Readers. Since its an anthology for black writers of the 19th century and later he published Black Detriot among many, many articles. I got chance to meet him through his books and casual meetings on 125 Street upon a casual presence. But his book Black Detriot, I honestly can say in Black Detriot I begin to understand the struggle centered to the Detroit native similar to the struggle in Harlem, USA. Everything became clear. Detroit was tagged as a Black prosperous City. But Main stream propagada gave it the negative image of the City of Detroit and engineered the crisis, marginalized dispaterities and the automobile factories left the City dry.
“The year with the highest Black homeownership was 2004, when the rate reached approximately 49.4% or 49.7%. This peak was attributed to a large number of predatory loans, which significantly contributed to the subsequent loss of homes during the 2008 Great Recession.”’
When Herb Boyd wrote Black Detroit, since I knew he was an excellent writer, I purchase his book. As I began reading his book, I begin to understand that Black Detroit was a under attack like most urban northern cities.
Finally, I recommend it to any one interest in understanding Black Detroit.
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