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Yesterday, I came with a group of friends to skydive. From the moment we arrived to the moment we left, we received excellent and friendly service from all but one person. The gentleman who checked us in was wonderful. The gentleman who gave us instruction was awesome. My instructor Katy and videographer Cody were phenomenal. One photographer even gave us copies of all of our photos to our phones. Talk about going there extra mile! In fact, the other instructors and photographers were great too, except for one.
It started when Katy was checking my gear. Chris B came over, yanked my shoulder harness, and said it’s too loose with a smile, then walked away. I asked Katy if it was too loose. “No, he’s just messing around.”
Fast forward to when we’re on the plane in the air, he yanked it again and said it’s too loose. I turned to Katy. “Is this too loose?” “No.” I asked him if he was serious. He giggled. He touched it again and said, “This is gorgeous.” Then he moved it down,”This is dead gorgeous.” At this point I said, “Look, if there’s an issue, help me. If not, I l’d really appreciate it if you’d stop.” He started to laugh. “I’m serious.” At this point he waved his finger from side to side and moved his head from side to side imitating a racist trope of a Black woman. I told him that he really needed to stop and then I turned away and looked out the window.
I need to mention a few things here:
1. I am not afraid of heights so I wasn’t nervous about the jump. As someone who has done all manner of air, land, and sea adventures around the world, the importance of safety, listening to instructors, and securing gear has been programmed into me. Never in my 40 years have I encountered someone as unprofessional about safety gear as Chris B. Not only that, when asked to stop, he kept bullying a customer. That is unacceptable.
2. I speak like a newscaster. My entire family sounds the same. I’m a professional speaker. I say all of that to say that when Chris B. performed his racist impersonation of me, it was not accurate. So if I don’t talk and move that way, the only explanation for his “sister girl” act would be his making fun of my Blackness. This day in age, I don’t throw out terms like “racist” often as it’s a serious accusation. Notice I didn’t call him racist, but his mimicking certainly was. He needs DEI training immediately. If I had been Indian American with a newscaster accent, would he have mocked me in an Apu accent or bobbled his head?
Chris B. took what would have been a fabulous experience for me and tainted it. He tainted your brand. He’s the reason I didn’t tag your company, potentially sending you a significant amount of referrals. I prepaid nearly $400 for my jump and video. I then paid for a friend’s video who looked like she wasn’t going to get one. I then tipped Katy and Cody $100. I spent nearly $600, was polite, appreciative, and fun-loving with each of your employees, and this is how I was treated.
I didn’t want to make a scene after the jump yesterday and mess up my friend’s memory of her birthday jump. As a business owner, I know that we aren’t always aware of what our employees do. However, how we do respond once we learn matters.
I had so much fun with the exception of my interaction with Chris B and now I doubt I'll ever return because seeing him would just remind me of his racist impersonation. That's not fun. I'm positive had his ugly behavior not occurred, I'd be a repeat customer, bringing in referrals. As it stands, I'm just not comfortable.
I look forward to a response.
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The manager called me and gaslit me saying that Chris B was a Tik Tok influencer, likely “sassed” (his word) me because I was so direct, Chris’ imitation wasn’t racist and I just had a different sense of humor. - via 