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Courier News Online
c-n.com
PLAINFIELD STORE'S
RECEIPT ANGERS CITY MAN
Plainfield man finds
offensive phrase, unexplained charge
after purchasing cell
phone.
By JARED KALTWASSER,
c-n.com from the Web, September 21, 2007
PLAINFIELD -- A city man was
outraged Thursday to find what he considered a racial epithet, along with an
unexplained charge, on the receipt for a cell phone he had purchased at a
downtown wireless store.
Nykii Southerland, 27, went to the U.S. 1 Wireless store, 102 W. Front St., to
purchase a mobile phone. When he got in his car and glanced at the
receipt, he said he was shocked to find the phrase "good morning MY NIGGAS @
U.S. 1 HOLLA BAK" next to an otherwise unspecified charge of $25.
"I noticed it like two minutes after I got into my car," he said. "I felt
disrespected; I was very offended."
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KATHY JOHNSON,
COURIER NEWS
Nykii
Southerland of Plainfield shows a receipt Thursday containing an
offensive message that he said he received from U.S. 1 Wireless in
Plainfield. |
Upset, Southerland, who is black,
went home and showed the receipt to his mother, Cheryl.
"I called the store, and they said everyone uses the word all the time," Cheryl
Southerland said. "I said, 'My son wants a refund.' "
When the store refused a refund, Cheryl Southerland called a lawyer, whom she
said advised her to call police. Police then accompanied the Southerlands
back to the store, and the money was refunded.
Reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Vinny Vemarco of U.S. 1 Wireless, who sold
the phone to Nykii Southerland, said the N-word phrase was directed at other
store employees as a way to brag about making a sale.
"It wasn't a statement towards anybody. It was a statement towards U.S. 1
Wireless," he said. "Something was wrong with the network. Normally,
they (employee messages) don't show on the receipt. We talk to each other
just like that."
As for the unidentified $25 charge on the receipt, Vemarco said the phone
incorrectly rang up on the receipt for $125 instead of $150 -- another network
error.
Vemarco said he isn't worried about the ramifications of his actions because he
believes the Southerlands are overreacting.
Vemarco said the version of the N-word on the receipt is commonly used in his
native Brooklyn, N.Y., and that the word no longer has a racist meaning.
"Did something happen to them that they had flashbacks or something?" Vemarco
said. "I thought this happened in the fifties, and it was squashed.
You go to MTV; they use it all the time."
Vemarco, who identified himself as "half black," said the word doesn't offend
him.
But it does offend Nykii Southerland.
"Yes. That word still offends black folks today," Nykii Southerland said.
"Even though it came from back then, it still offends African-Americans to this
day. I'm offended only because it came from a consumer store and from the
employees thinking it's OK."
Nykii Southerland acknowledged that, in some contexts, the term "nigga" is
considered less derogatory than its original version, but he doesn't like it.
"It depends on the people, but it's not up to them to say it's OK for me to say
that to another African-American," Nykii Southerland said. "I still would
not use that word."
Vemarco said the store owner was out of town until Monday. Vemarco said he
usually works at a store in Brooklyn but was called to help out Thursday in the
Plainfield store.
U.S. 1 Wireless is a T-Mobile dealer. When reached for comment, a
representative from T-Mobile USA said they would not comment on the matter
because the T-Mobile did not own the store in question.
The Southerlands said they plan to pursue the case through the police department
and the Union County Prosecutor's Office.
Jared Kaltwasser can be reached at (908) 707-3137 or
jkaltwasse@gannett.com.
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