Ignorance and Bliss in Rochester

Up until a week ago I was working at a shop on chili avenue. Every day i was forced to deal with a large number of very ignorant people. having taken college courses in sales one key point a professor of mine made was that know matter how your client speaks, keep your integrity and composure. When you are african american and work in the inner city this is very difficult. On a constant basis I have people question my “blackness” because I speak proper english. I speak proper english for 2 reasons. First my mom was a teacher and felt slang sounded ignorant so growing we spoke proper at home. Secondly, when you are working your suposed to speak punctually and proper, at thats what I was taught. But I have had customers assume, that i was white, latino, arab, italian and other ethnic backgrounds because i speak proper english. Apparently the people in this area of the city are so ignorant that any dark skinned man with any from of class, education or couth is assumed to not be black. I find this sickening. Whats even worse to me is that I expect this sort of ignorance from people my age(23) and younger but when people in their late forties look down on you because you talk to them respectfuly, its a very bad sign. Whats worst of all is knowing that only the black people in the area act this way, the arabs and caucasions in this very ghetto area do not, which to me says that my fellow african americans dont act this way becuase of the environment, but act this way by choice. Lastly I would like to add that a young man entered the store trying to sell me a phone. He insisted I was trying to scam him when I had to call the manager and give him the deatils about the phone to which I said in these words ” the manager is a phone expert, and he decides whether or not we buy a phone”. The young mans response was and I quote ” Why you gotta be using complicated words like I dont understand what you trying to say, I know what you sayin, I aint stupid” i was shocked that this young man used the word “complicated” without fainting from mental exaustion.