I'm bringing my Dunkin Donuts crew to Steemit ... and the different things they call me at work. No racism was involved here. It was all in good spirit. Plus a little message about Racism. Let's abolish that word.

Please note: Before i start telling you about the crazy things we do at work, it's very important i point out that, no one was racially abused here. We have a lot of fun at work and this was all in good spirit so please know that and enjoy the ride although if some of the things they called me were weapons aimed at me, I would have been dead by now :D

Ok let's begin..

Before i start, a little bit about myself. Dunkin Donuts was the first job i had ever since i came to the US. I'm a Ghanaian who came here in 2011 for school, studying Computer Science. I loooooove it. Dunking Donuts is work I'm familiar with and the people I've worked with have been amazingly wonderful. I've had great experiences at Dunkin. I used to work there in the first few weeks of the Fall 2015 semester but had to leave and focus on School. I did that and came back 3 weeks before the end of the Spring 2016 semester when i was all done with my projects and was fully ready for finals. Majority of the work was done so it was more than OK for me to go back to Dunkin(a 10 minute walk from my school) and work with these awesome people. I will be going back to work in the Office of Information Technology at Southern when school starts as a student worker as I love being involved with all the fun stuff in the world of computing but I will always be available to work at Dunkin when possible. Here is a picture of me as a mentor of a hack jam we organized for middle school girls to help hone their skills in programming. We will be organizing it again in the fall semester and as always, very excited to be there. I'm very excited for it. 

Ok so i told the entire crew about Steemit and invited them all here. Leading by example, my manager was the first to sign up. She signed up instantly. Her name is  Bhavna and her Steemit name is @bhavnapatel68 . I'll introduce the whole crew here and then tell you about some of the crazy funny things they call me at work because of being soooooo black. I even admit it haha.  Again, no racism was involved here. We have this kind of fun and none of that whatsoever was a part here.

Ok, here is the sweet Bhavna. She's our manager and "mother". She's an awesome manager and takes very good care of all of us. She makes sure we're well fed and a GREAT leader. The dunkin donuts i work at has ranked top in Hamden, CT for years and it's mainly due to her and the crew. She's indeed really been awesome. I told her about Steemit and she gladly joined. Here's her blog @bhavnapatel68 . Her daughter, Kajal( @kajalpats ), knows about it too and has already signed up.

Here's Robert. He's our Assistant Manager. This guy is the definition of "crazy" in the most cool way possible. He's one of those people you meet and like without any interaction. Extremely funny and super awesome. Let me report him now. He was the one who came up with most of the names. The mastermind of all the crazy funny names they call me at work. Let me give you a hint. He said i looked like an Oreo coolatta because I looked soooo black. Haha. More of that to come. But again and again, this is all for fun. I take no grudge at that. This is how we should all be. Not take grudges for the good and funny interactions we have with people especially when they don't at all mean that. And even if they did, why not just ignore it and move on with your life because of your pride of who you are? Anyway more on that later, but yeah, Robbie A.K.A butter A.K.A the ladies man is a really awesome and amazing person. I've invited him to Steemit too and he's asked me to set it up for him tomorrow, Wednesday, August 1oth.

Here's Shilpa. I can't begin to explain in detail what this lovely woman is to me. I lost my mom a couple months after i came to the US unfortunately. May her soul rest in perfect peace. Shilpa has been just like a mother to me. She's the kind of mother who wants the best for her children and is tough on you in a good way because she wants you to excel. She's always advising me on school, life and everything. She is a good hearted person with a lot of love for me. Very hardworking for sure. I'm sometimes marveled at the work she does at Dunkin. And definitely an inspiration to me. Much love to her too. She's a very warm person. I've invited her to Steemit. She doesn't have all the time she said. She forwarded it to her daughter who'll be joining Steemit soon. But I've given her every reason, she said she'll find the time to sign up.

Here's Antoine. We call him Toine G. The only O.G in Dunkin. I'm sure most of you know what that means. Haha. He's our Sandwich maker. The best I've ever seen in my entire life. Seriously. He's also a Chef. He cooks for us and makes sure we're all fed when @bhavnapatel68 regulates the break times for all of us. Amazing guy. All these people have made a huge difference in my life. Taught me life lessons and inspired me to work hard in school. They are the reason I'm keeping on keeping on. And i can't be thankful enough for Antoine and all the crew. I've invited him to Steemit too. He's not sure about when to sign up yet, but he said he'll let me know soon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed he joins us.

Here's Sarafat. She's new and just joined us this week. She comes from Nigeria, the same continent I'm from. I come from Ghana by the way. She is very quiet but very humble. She's working very hard to provide for her family here and back home. I want to invite everyone i can to Steemit and took a picture with her as well. I just told her about Steemit. She doesn't know enough information about it yet, but I'll definitely add to the information She already has every time i go to work.

And here's Zak. This man is a very humble cookie, a very hardworking cookie, and a great person. She was just telling me yesterday about how her daughter back home in Nigeria had great grades in the West African Examination Council, that's like the West African version of the SAT if i may. I saw the grades and they were wonderful. He was contemplating on the next step for his daughter and i could see instantly how much of desire he has for his daughter to be the best She can ever be. He said he never had the opportunity to go to school but he's going to do everything to make sure his daughter does. And he is. He works really hard and a spine at our Dunkin. I've invited him to Steemit as well. He doesn't know a lot about it, but as always I'll be there to walk him through understanding every bit of it in any way i can.

There are other workers. Nupur, Danny, Tiffanny, Larry, Taoheed, Yekini and Tony. I couldn't take pictures with all of them because most of them weren't at work at that time and a few were shy. But I've told all of them about Steemit and they're all thinking about signing up. So I'm very happy about my accomplishment :) so far.

Now about the funny things they were calling me. I'll make it snappy. This is not about racism but about fun. Basically they were making fun of how black i was, in the nicest and funniest way possible, not because of any racial issues but just to continue our tradition of laughter and fun we have everyday at work, and were matching me to Dunkin Donuts items as black as i am. The craziest thing you've heard today right? Haha. Ok, so without further ado and in no particular order, Here's my ROAST! Robert was the mastermind of most of the names by the way :)

The first thing they call me is a double chocolate donut...

And then an Oreo Coolatta, although we don't have it yet...

It got worse, A Coffee Coolatta concentrate..

Our new Cold Brew Ice Coffee

Mocha Swirl ...

Now this one's bad.

A Trash bag!!!!!!!

A Dirt Picker ...

... and Poppy Seeds.

Haha. In fact there were a lot of things to pick on there that were black. We all agreed I was going to end it here when i post it :)

Ok. That was something huh? Haha. It was a fun day of laughter and i wanted to share it with all of you. Again nothing about racism was involved here and this brings me to the little message about racism i wanted to talk about. Unfortunately we've experienced all sorts of incidents related to racism we can't help but call it that. Now although there may be clear cases of racism, this wasn't one of them. I wanted to say in my case, that's it's Ok to play these kinds of games without labeling it racist. If we were kids and we were all playing these kind of games, we would all be laughing it off. We can do the same thing as grownups and make life more enjoyable and worth the experience by not calling all things racist. Sometimes it's not at all. So yeah. There goes my little, almost useless but perhaps a little helpful advise on Racism. But yeah, the fun name calling experience i had at Dunkin with my friends was actually an act of bringing as together with laughter and strong bonds of people from different countries. And also an invitation to Steemit.

Back to school. I've been giving a job by Professor Lancor, the Chairperson of the entire Computer Science Department at Southern Connecticut State University(http://www.southernct.edu/academics/schools/arts/departments/computerscience/lancor.html). I'll be working as a Programmer, Web Developer and Systems Administrator. I've invited her to Steemit also and She will be joining us hopefully. 

I talked a little about my new job on Steemit and how their colors are just like Steemit, Blue and white, but had to delete it because i wasn't sure i was giving out too much information about Lisa and whether She'll be Ok with it. I had to make sure. Also i was a bit shy then. Here is the post( https://steemit.com/steemit/@kakradetome/my-steemit-inspired-programming-web-development-and-systems-administration-job-interview-i-got-the-job ). I won't repost it because that will be a violation but it was amazing how the entire environment was blue and white.  After She sent me this email and others. She seems Ok with it.

Here i was in my Steemit inspired blue and white attire for my interview.

I have been given the job and my paper work cleared Yesterday. All the thanks to Lisa Lancor and the Computer Science Department at Southern for helping me Steem on to my dreams.

I thank my Dunkin Donuts Manager and Crew for making this possible. I love you all.

Thanks for your time reading my long and perhaps a bit funny post. If it put a smile on your face. I'm glad. If didn't, I'm sorry. If anyone was offended by this, I'm sorry as well and didn't mean to. Thank you again and Happy Steeming Everyone!

#steemit #dunkin-donuts #racism #funny #computer-science