It’s become a hallmark of the digital age – the incriminating or embarrassing internal email that ends up in the public domain. The hot one this week had been sent weeks ago within management at The Galleria. Oliver Frank Martin wrote this masterpiece of minstrelsy, regarding an attempt to confirm the phone number for a black shop owner, Mark Campbell, owner of Kram (that’s “Mark” spelled backwards), purveyor of lady handbags, fashion jewelry, leather jackets and hip shades.
Martin emailed people in management at the leasing office, saying an employee at Kram told him “dey’s sumpin wrong wit’ da phone lion.”
Itn’t dat cute? “Dey’s sumpin wrong wit’ da phone lion.” Maybebebe dey’s sumpin’ wrong wit’ da corporate culture at da Galleria if’n da employees think it be cool to send emails like dat ‘bout da tenants in da sto’e. Maybebebe I ain’t gonna go dere anymo’.
Carol Allen, the employee who spoke to dude, was very upset and insulted when she read the leaked email. Campbell said, “She is your typical 21-year-old black female. She is coming into who she is. She is learning how to dress and speak. She has an urban St. Louis dialect.” Campbell said when he approached Galleria management, “they said, ‘We don’t condone this, blah blah blah.’ Their corporate lawyer called and asked me, ‘What can we do to make this better?’ He offered me $1,500, a verbal apology and sensitivity training for employees. I don’t want a verbal apology; anybody can fix their mouth and say anything. I haven’t received any of that and that’s been three weeks ago.”
The Galleria responded to the American’s inquiries with a release that stated, “Our goal is to promote a workplace of diversity and will not tolerate anything to the contrary. An apology has been made. We are conducting an ongoing internal review and investigation of exactly what transpired. We have reinforced current policies and will make any additional changes necessary. We will take any necessary disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again.”