From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: Re: Racist Car Dealers (was Re: Good Quote)
Originator: barnhart@gagme
Organization: Gagme Public Access UNIX, Chicago, Illinois.
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 22:59:32 GMT


>In article <1992Jul23.000815.5045@pslu1.psl.wisc.edu> johnson@offroad.chem.wisc.edu (Arthur Johnson) writes:
>>In article <1992Jul22.033945.6745@news2.cis.umn.edu>  
>>mmoore@epx.cis.umn.edu ("None of ya Bizness") writes:
>>> In article <1992Jul21.193830.12494@seq.uncwil.edu>  
>>frankli@seq.uncwil.edu [name deleted] writes:
>>> 
>>> $How about it? Who did it happen to? My mother WORKS for GMAC. Caught
>>> $your tired ass on this one.
>>> 
>>> No you didn't you silly bastard.  So mothafuckin what if your mammy  
>>works
>>> for GMAC!  That pithy statement means nothing.  Obviously your overtly  
>>liberal
>>> ass hasn't been watching TV lately.  Remember that Prime Time special  
>>where
>>> they compared the ethics of a car dealer with a black customer and with  
>>a white
>>> customer?  The white customer was quoted a substantially lower price on  
>>a 
>>> car than was the black customer.
>>> 
>>     Malcolm's right. I saw this special too. It started a real debate  
>>between my housemates and me on how to solve this particular problem. We  
>>all finally agreed that the car manufacturers should insist that their  
>>dealers sell cars at fixed prices (no bargaining allowed) set by the  
>>manufacturers. Fortunately, there is one such company that does this:  
>>Saturn Inc. They make great cars that are reasonably priced, and all their  
>>cars are sold at fixed prices. So, with a Saturn, at least you don't have  
>>to worry about the next person getting a better deal than you simply  
>>because of his/her "race". 

Yeah Arthur, but no doubt someone will find another way.  I am looking
here <rummage rummage> no luck, for a Wall St. Journal article of about
three months past, an editorial on the "black tax."  Well, let me just
tell you two stories from that first-person account that stand out
vividly:

One is the author going to Marshall Field's to return a shirt.  The woman
has one look at him and says he's going to have to *launder* the shirt first
and bring a receipt as proof of laundering before she will accept the 
exchange.  The author does so and gets his refund from this ethnic scum
who can barely conceal her rage.  Author, natch, sends a friend to Field's
for the express purpose of purchasing, then returning a few days later,
a similar shirt.  White friend gets prompt pleasant refund FROM THE SAME
WOMAN.

Another is the author -- a Newsweek photographer by the way -- trying to
sell his home in a hurry, in response to a career leap of a promotion
which he cannot afford to turn down but will have to if he can't get a 
decent price on his home.  Unfortauntely, the agent appraises the home
way low, and the author is stunned.  But wait: he calls his *white friends*
and tells them his plan.  They show up, whisking away all evidences of a
black household, replacing photographs and other telltale cultural symbols
with their white faces.  Another agent is called in and .... an appraisal
slightly outside the margin of error results.  To wit, FIFTEEN THOUSAND
DOLLARS HIGHER than the previous appraisal.

Then of course there are the markups in stores in predominantly black
neighborhoods, which everybody on s.c.a.a. except, of course,
[name deleted] ought to be familiar wit.  But anyway.

>>> "Jeeeeah this is the rap about the bat batman he is the one in black  
>>like a bat
>>> out of hell he will reveal SCREAMIN DOWN THE ROAD IN A BATMOBILE!!!!!!!"

Hey watch ou --
-- 
Aaron (Barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us)
Evanston, Illinois