It’s been several months since PR professional, James Andrews, sent a message on Twitter that set the blogosphere on fire. I’ve been seeing more mentions of the incident lately so I decided to weigh in with my perspective which appears to be different than the majority I have read.
If you are unfamiliar with the incident, James Andrews sent a tweet that said:
True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, ‘I would die if I had to live here’.
The back story was that Andrews was in Memphis for a meeting with FedEx about social media. The tweet itself didn’t cause the stir in the blogosphere instead it was the public reaction to the tweet by a FedEx employee.
Mr. Andrews,
If I interpret your post correctly, these are your comments about Memphis a few hours after arriving in the global headquarters city of one of your key and lucrative clients, and the home of arguably one of the most important entrepreneurs in the history of business, FedEx founder Fred Smith.
Many of my peers and I feel this is inappropriate. We do not know the total millions of dollars FedEx Corporation pays Ketchum annually for the valuable and important work your company does for us around the globe. We are confident however, it is enough to expect a greater level of respect and awareness from someone in your position as a vice president at a major global player in your industry. A hazard of social networking is people will read what you write.
Not knowing exactly what prompted your comments, I will admit the area around our airport is a bit of an eyesore, not without crime, prostitution, commercial decay, and a few potholes. But there is a major political, community, religious, and business effort underway, that includes FedEx, to transform that area. We’re hopeful that over time, our city will have a better “face” to present to visitors.
James, everyone participating in today’s event, including those in the auditorium with you this morning, just received their first paycheck of 2009 containing a 5% pay cut… which we wholeheartedly support because it continued the tradition established by Mr. Smith of doing whatever it takes to protect jobs.
Considering that we just entered the second year of a U.S. recession, and we are experiencing significant business loss due to the global economic downturn, many of my peers and I question the expense of paying Ketchum to produce the video open for today’s event; work that could have been achieved by internal, award-winning professionals with decades of experience in television production.
Additionally Mr. Andrews, with all due respect, to continue the context of your post; true confession: many of my peers and I don’t see much relevance between your presentation this morning and the work we do in Employee Communications.
While most have jumped on the fact that Andrews offended FedEx by seeming to publicly slam Memphis. Most have not pointed out that the person who wrote this message was in FedEx’s communications department which would be in direct competition for whatever services Andrews and his firm were selling to FedEx. It’s obvious from the tone that the employee felt threatened by this PR firm coming in and “showing” them social media.
When Andrews was confronted with this, he explained that his tweet was in response to an incident by an intolerant individual at his hotel. Many have said that they don’t buy it. I’d imagine that those who don’t believe him have never been on the receiving end of intolerance when traveling. Furthermore, I find it ridiculous that people can be so offended by a statement about a city. Quite frankly I will admit that one incident can form my opinion about a place.
In 1998, I moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with my then fiancé (now ex-husband). Many of his friends would ask me how I liked Milwaukee. Having moved there from Washington, DC, I would say that it was a lot different than what I was used to. Many of them took offense without even caring to ask what I meant by the remark. It was not the best thing to say, I agree but they the failed to even consider my point of view on the matter. I had moved to Milwaukee, which is the most segregated city in the north, from Washington, DC, which is the home of the most educated Black people in the country. What welcomed me to Milwaukee was the fact that at work, I was ignored and avoided by most and treated like a spectacle by others. When not at work, I was treated like dirt in general, especially depending on what side of town I was on. Not only that but the native Milwaukeeans that I knew were not very welcoming of transplants like me. It was very depressing. While I now have some good friends who live in Milwaukee my opinions of the city were directly shaped by my experiences there. One can disagree with me all they want about how nice a place Milwaukee is to live but they didn’t experience what I experienced. Even though I lived there for three years, I still say it’s a nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there. And if you go anywhere near the airport, you will experience intolerance as the airport is not on our side of town.
Now, James Andrews visited Memphis from Atlanta, another center of successful Black people. I’m quite sure being treated badly by a hotel employee was a huge culture shock to him. Can he be blamed for his opinion of not wanting to live there? What gives someone the right to be offended by his reaction to how he was treated? His tweet didn’t even mention the city or the hotel so it’s even more ridiculous that anyone was offended by it. As I said before, the FedEx employee was probably more offended that an outside PR firm had come to “teach” the internal communications department about social media.
I’ve been to Memphis. While the area around the airport is less than desirable, that’s not a big deal since it’s the same way for most cities I’ve been to. What I did notice was that downtown was very quaint; a lot of the buildings have been restored and there are a lot of beautiful homes. This is something you don’t see in many cities. The riverfront area is nice (it reminded me of the lakefront area in Milwaukee which is also nice). Just a few blocks from downtown, however, were housing projects where the Black people seemed to live. While I was not in Memphis for an extended period of time, this is what I saw. This is what I was greeted with. What impressions should I make from that?
Have you ever been treated like you didn’t belong somewhere by a hotel or store employee? I have. This happens in a lot of places I go in my hometown of Chesapeake, Virginia. They treated me like this when I was growing up there and they still treat me like this when I visit. If you tell me that the place is racist, I won’t be offended even though William E. Ward, a black man, was the mayor for 14 years. It’s just an opinion; everyone has one. The funny thing is that even in the Washington, DC, area there are places that I could go and be treated like a common criminal. It doesn’t matter how educated I am or how much money I make.
If I was visiting a place and that was the first thing I experienced, my entire experience of the place would be tainted by that indicent. Instead of being offended by negative comments about your town, work to change it. I am disappointed that in all the commotion, no one even thought to look at how Black people are treated in Memphis. Andrews is not the only one with this opinion.
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