Client: “Is e-mail on the internet? I have no internet, can I still read my e-mail?”
Me: “Well yes, you must be able to get online to view your e-mail.”
Client: “Oh, dear. I can’t see my e-mail.”
Me: “Well, let’s see. Can you open up Internet Explorer for me and tell me what you see?”
Client: “Open what?”
Me: “Your browser, can you open up your browser?”
Client: “My…my…?”
Me: “What you click on when you want to browse the internet?”
Client: “I don’t use anything, I just turn my computer on, and it’s there.”
Me: “Okay. Do you see the little blue ‘e’ icon on your desktop?”
Client: “You mean I have to start writing letters again?”
Me: “I’m…what, I’m sorry?”
Client: “I don’t have any pens at my desk. I just want my e-mail again.”
Me: “No, ma’am, your desktop, on your computer screen. Can you click on the little blue ‘e’ on your computer screen for me?”
Client: “Oh, this is too much work. I’m too upset. Just send me my e-mail. Can’t you send me my e-mail?”
Me: “We…okay, ma’am. Can you tell me what color the lights are on your router right now?”
Client: “My what?”
Me: “The little box with green or possibly a couple of red lights on it right now – it’s most likely near your computer?”
Client: “Lights and boxes, boxes and lights, just get my e-mail for me.
Me: “My test is showing that you should be able to get online right now. Can you tell me what you’re seeing on your computer screen?”
Client: “It’s been the same thing for the last two hours.”
Me: “An error message?”
Client: “No, just stars. It’s black and moving stars.”
Me: “…Do you see your mouse next to your keyboard?”
Client: “Yes.”
Me: “Move it for me.”
Client: “Move it?”
Me: “Yes. Move it.”
Client: “My e-mail!”
This post gave me a fucking ulcer.
You meet people like this at the library. People who have been coming in every day for YEARS to use the computers and monopolize your time with conversations like this, that seem to go out of their way to avoid listening to anything you try to teach them because they’d rather you just do it for them.
So one day, this tiny, frail little woman comes to the desk with a huge folder of papers under her arm. She says “I need to use one of the computers,” and I’m like “alright, I’ll set you up with a guest account.”
And then she says “I’ll also need you to show me how to use a computer. I’m 97 years old and I’ve never even touched one before, but I need to file my health information and they told me I needed to do it using this,” and she holds out a little scrap of paper with a url scrawled on it in a shaky hand.
And I’m just mentally like ‘oh no,’ but I say of course I can help her. So I sit her down and sign her in, and she stops me to ask basically what the mouse is, and I explain it, but I’m just thinking that this is going to take a million years. But I start doing a quick and dirty run down of the parts of the computer, the programs, the desktop, what a url is and what the Internet is, what a search engine is, what websites are, and so on.
She doesn’t interrupt or ask any questions or anything, and then I’m like ‘okay let’s go to this url’ and it’s an interactive, multi-page form that she needs to put all that info in her folder into and submit, and I’m just terrified as I’m explaining it that I’m going to spend all day with this woman.
But she’s just like “alright. I think I’ve got it.” And she must have had a secretary job back in the typewriter days, because she just *whips* through the first page of the form and submits and goes on to the next, and tells me she’ll find me if she needs me.
She came over once to tell me she needed an email address and wanted to know how to set one up – I told her about her options and she picked Gmail and went back to the computer and set it up all by herself, and got her information all filed properly in about an hour and a half – and she’d NEVER used a computer before in her LIFE.
When she was done, she came over to ask me how to turn it off and I showed her and she thanked me for being so patient, and I told her quite honestly that I’d NEVER seen a novice adult pick up using a computer so fast.
And she said “oh, but it’s so simple! And so useful! My grandkids made it sound so difficult, but I’m going to pick up my own computer tomorrow!”
And I think she must have, because I never saw her in the library again.
Anyway I hope I’m that quick when I’m 97.
^ thank you for sharing this very positive experience because the experience from OP really gave me a headache. it was nice to end on a positive note.. gives hope
Sometimes i wish white people would like ask themselves “Am i unnecessarily exposing black people and/or people of color to racism/anti-blackness they otherwise wouldnt have encountered?”
When you white people share these graphic videos of black people getting shot in the streets or immigrant crying for their parents are very traumatizing for people of color to see over and over 24/7 365, because this is still our lived experiences and these things can happen to us and our communities!!
Exposing us to unnecessary racism is racism!!!
white people can reblog
ok i understand where your coming from, but that picture of the immigrant child specifically and sometimes other horrible racial things need to be shown, they’re not being shown to people of color and marginalized groups, they know this happens, they deal with it everyday, this is for people like myself who need reminding that this shit continues and for those that believe racism and the like are dead. I don’t deal with racism on a daily basis and other white people don’t either and in order to do something about it we need to see that it exists and is bad. The police don’t want these shootings recorded, the Trump administration doesn’t want you to see crying children, but because we did we can move forward to do something. If this evil is not seen by everyone, not everyone will believe there is evil and it will flourish.
wow i love how you admit that you/other whites need to see and spread graphic horrible thing happen to people of color to “empathize” and see us a s human
evil doesnt always need to be seen, evil is felt and if you cant feel the evil ass whiteness in your response then idk what the hell to tell you
if people don’t see it they will claim it doesn’t exist no matter how much of a problem it is. Remember that slave auction in Libya, if that video didn’t exist many people wouldn’t believe it. My point ISN’T that we need to see suffering to humanize people (although some assholes do and it is disgusting) My point is that many people think it doesn’t happen and need undeniable proof (like a video) that these problems exist.
You say there is no reason to expose you to unnecessary racism and you are right but the white people who think racism is in the past need to be exposed to it because they think its in the past because they aren’t seeing it. You can’t feel evil if it isn’t near you, and the point of sharing these pics/videos is bring it closer to home to the people who aren’t near it like whites and republicans who never see these things.
White people like me need to see or we will forget
White people like them need to see or they won’t even know
empathetic and compassionate people dont need see to injustice and suffering to know that its happening and that its something that needs to be changed
thanks for reaffirming the lack of empathy white people have for people of color
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