Open Letter to Uber Drivers

2 of 13 or 25 or 48 reasons you’ve been deactivated, or will soon be deactivated

Every day in the various Uber driver forums on Facebook, I see drivers referring to passengers as “a$$holes” and other derogatory, profane terms. Many of you have heard the phrase “say it with a smile” but have you ever considered the flip side of that age old phrase? If you say “thank you, have a nice day” not with a smile in your voice but, rather, the thought “let me see if this a$$hole gives me a tip,” do you not believe your greed will be discernible to the rider? Do you really believe you are that smart, and riders that dumb? Evidently you do. That’s the first of many reasons why you’ve been deactivated, or will soon be deactivated, your possibly immaculate car notwithstanding.

Many attendees of the Uber driver improvement class that I teach in DC arrive at the class looking unkempt and dressed as if they just rolled out of bed, wearing little more than pajamas or what they’d wear to work in their gardens, despite being advised (when they registered for the class) to dress professionally. They attempt to talk over me, constantly interrupt the class and even try to FLIRT with me. That’s the second reason why so many drivers have been deactivated or will soon be deactivated – unbelievably, jaw-droppingly unprofessional behavior, in a class that they PAID to attend! If this is how they behave in a CLASS with up to 30 other “students,” one can only imagine their behavior in their cars, alone with passengers. This second reason can be summed up, in my view, as a lack of humility.

Why are these drivers in the class in the first place? Is it not in the hope of “passing” the class by learning as much as possible, in order to be re-activated by Uber, and to bring their ratings up from below 4.6? The types of shenanigans observed in the class clearly confirm that many drivers honestly have no idea that contrary to their beliefs that they're doing "everything right,” they are, in fact, engineering and hastening their own demises in the ridesharing business.

A question frequently asked in the (4 hour) class further highlights the naïveté of about half of drivers’ – that half often asks why Uber didn’t give them this training when they first got approved/started driving. The other half vigorously shake the instructor’s hand/thank the instructor profusely on the way out at the end of the class, anxious to return to driving and to implement all they have learned, in order to be better drivers. The answer is so simple that they are often stunned into silence – Uber doesn’t train drivers because drivers are not employees! Drivers are independent contractors. Whether you believe drivers should be employees or not is irrelevant – only until and IF current law is changed, drivers are and will remain… independent contractors!

Making analogies isn’t exactly my forte but put another way, say you’re a hair stylist/cosmetologist and you go to a hair salon and apply to rent a chair and your application is, out of many applications, approved. So you bring your gear to the salon, set up your station and start making appointments/doing your clients’ hair, but at some point your customers begin complaining to the owner about you and the owner subsequently breaks the news that you have to go [due to the litany of complaints]. You held yourself out to be a cosmetologist and the owner leased the chair to you on that basis. If you did not take the time to familiarize yourself with such simple matters as the workings of the salon, the operating hours, clients’ hairstyle preferences and hair product preferences, why would you point an accusatory finger at the shop owner for not training you in cosmetology?! In my view, it is the same with deactivated drivers – there is much they might have learned about UBER, service, and the ridesharing industry itself, had they but taken the time to learn it. Before they were deactivated.

Uber on!

Copyright 2015 © Luceele Smith

The Lost Art of [not just] Writing Well, but Writing

I am constantly amazed and, frankly, appalled at the poor writing skills of not just [most of] the high school graduates and college-educated people, many of whom possess advanced degrees, with whom I regularly and personally interact and communicate, but in mainstream media—in print and in film—as well.

In September 2012, I wrote to Tami Reed, author of the online blog "Talking with Tami" about a poorly written article [about the Soul Train Awards] she had published.  Here is an excerpt of my e-mail to her:  "Hi Tami, kudos on your reporting and gorgeous photos.  There’s no way to soften the reality of this truth so I'll jump right in:  This article is riddled with spelling/grammatical errors.  Here are some examples:  Scarfs should be scarves; eskimo is a noun (and should be capitalized), "anymore" should be two words, designers should be designer’s (possessive) [in the context used], etc."

To her credit, Ms. Reed's response was receptive, not defensive, to the errors I pointed out:  "Thank you for your email and yes I went to an urban school where the teachers probably didnt give a damn about us and it was soo hard for me to break that habit when I went off to college.  A lot of it, is me rushing because of deadlines and I have so much to cover and do.  I have an editor for the other sites I write for but not my own.  I'm not offended and get emails here and there telling me of errors.  I like to write in my own voice on my own blog.  Thanks for emailing me!  I'm trying to do better!  I fixed the typos!  How much do you charge?"

After my e-mail to Ms. Reed, some of the errors were corrected (for example, Eskimo is now capitalized), but others (including "anymore" [which should be two words]) were not.  As of the date of this blog post (7/24/13), the word "scarfs" still appears in the article (instead of "scarves").

Ms. Reed's response brought up a couple of interesting issues.  First, it contained even more errors (see underlined words above), which I believe is due to the general feeling that one’s personal writing need not be "perfect," as opposed to when writing in more formal or professional settings.  Second, it alluded to Ms. Reed's belief that the [high school] teachers in her "urban school" didn't care about [Ms. Reed] and other students enough to teach them correct English.  This latter is harder to [personally] quantify because I [graduated from a British high school outside the U.S. at age 15 and therefore] did not attend public schools in the U.S.  I happen to believe one’s writing should be, if not "perfect," then certainly correct, in any/all settings.  I also now wonder if perhaps the problem could be, their possible truancy or inattention during English class notwithstanding, that students are not learning proper English because some/many teachers are themselves not well versed in the rules of English?

Another example of the widespread nature of the problem [of poor writing] is illustrated in this screen capture from the excellent, free, recently released iTunes Festival iPad app.  For such a short caption, it is filled with a surprising number of errors:  In the song title (Wonderful), the comma should be inside the quotation mark (not outside); the 'n has an extraneous quotation mark after it (it should only have one before the n, not after); and there’s a comma missing after the word "echoes."  The most glaring error is, of course, that the word “here” in the second sentence should be “hear.”  Needless to say, it was quite startling to see that many errors in an Apple product—evidence that not even one of the wealthiest companies in the world is immune from not only writing/grammatical errors, but from said errors making it to "print" in a published app without someone in the editorial process raising a hue and cry.  P.S.  I reported the errors to Apple (in a review of the app) on September 1, 2012.  I have reported similar [grammatical] errors to at least one other app developer, who responded within a matter of hours and, to my surprise, released an app update [correcting the error I had written to them about].  Not surprisingly, Apple has not, to date, followed suit.

In this screenshot from the DailyHoroscope iPhone app, it states in its Scorpio/Leo overview:  "A typical Scorpio and Leo combination can become the ultimate power couple."  It continues... "But only if you are both loyal and determent" [emphasis added].  Obviously, the word "determined" should have been used in place of "determent," which is not merely a misspelled word… it's not a word at all!

In the NDJ World screen shot below, the word "particularly" (instead of "particular") is [incorrectly] used in the first sentence of the article.

In a 1984 memorandum responding to a letter from David T. Willard, an elementary school superintendent in Illinois who opposed the administration’s education policies, Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts concluded that no legal issues needed to be addressed by the White House counsel’s office [where he worked at the time], but he took the opportunity to note, "The letter is very sarcastic, although Willard inadvertently proves our point about the quality of public education by incorrectly using 'affect' for 'effect.' "

As George Orwell said in his 1946 "Politics and the English Language" essay that explained [his views on] the connections between bad writing and bad thinking as well as the political consequences:  "Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble.  If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration:  so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional [or scholarly] writers," and "A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:  What am I trying to say?  What words will express it?  What image or idiom will make it clearer?  Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?  And he will probably ask himself two more:  Could I put it more shortly?  Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?"

Apart from the need for one’s writing to be technically correct, with words correctly capitalized, hyphenated and commas and punctuation marks, etc. correctly placed, there is also the issue of words being misspelled and usage of the wrong words (e.g., its/it’s, your/you are/you’re, their/there/they're, etc.).  As another example, I recently wrote (in a Facebook comment) to Essence magazine about their [incorrect] use of the word premier (it should have been premiere in the context used).

Yet another example:  In this screen grab from the 2009 movie Precious,

“You are a wonderful young women” should be “You are a wonderful young woman.”

The National Commission on Writing, in its 2004 report, said that good writing skills are at least as important in the public sector as in private industry, and that poor writing not only befuddles citizens but also slows down the government as bureaucrats struggle with unclear instructions or have to redo poorly written work [emphasis added].

According to former U.S. senator and 2004 chair of the National Commission on Writing, Bob Kerrey, "You have to be able to write, convert an idea and turn it into words."

Also, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, vice chairman of the National Governors Association, which conducted the survey for the Commission's 2004 report, said "It’s impossible to calculate the ultimate cost of lost productivity because people have to read things two and three times."

Another hidden cost [of poor writing] is that good ideas may never see the light of day.  "I see that all the time in writing and political speaking," Gov. Huckabee said.  “There are some really bright people who can't communicate and as a result their ideas probably aren't given the attention they deserve."

Judge Roberts agrees.  In his interview for an August 29, 2005 NY Times article [by Anne Kornblutt] (original article has been archived), he stated "your brief writing conveys not only your argument to the court, but it also conveys a sense of your credibility and the care with which you put together your case."

Another threat to good writing is the proliferation of abbreviations and acronyms that saw their origins in online chatting and instant messaging but which now occur with alarming regularity in almost all other forms of writing.  Terms like "ur" (in lieu of your, you are or you're), "OMG" (oh my God), "2" (to, too and two) and "4" (in lieu of for and four) are now, unfortunately, far too common.

In closing, this Orwell quote seems apt:  "One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one’s own habits, and from time to time one can even, if one jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase—some 'jackboot,' 'Achilles' heel,' 'hotbed,' 'melting pot,' 'acid test,' 'veritable inferno,' or other lump of verbal refuse—into the dustbin, where it belongs."

The question remains, however, that, typographical errors notwithstanding, if one doesn't know that one's grammar/writing is poor, how then would they know it should be changed/improved [and therefore that they are part of the (general) problem]?  They will not, and therefore the problem, sadly, seems destined to continue... unchecked■

Copyright © Luceele Smith -- September 3, 2012

Black Much?

At a wine festival [in Maryland] last Saturday, I was walking the grounds, mingling in the crowd, dancing, enjoying the music and greeting friends here & there. At one point I sat at a table that happened, surprisingly, to be empty. It also happened to be uncovered/exposed & it was extremely hot & humid so when I spied a couple of people nearby gathering their paraphernalia/preparing to leave, I made my way over & sat at the table (which had a built-in bench surrounding it). There was also a tent over the table. So I went over, sat on the bench. The two people at the table were on the opposite side of the table & both (women) had their backs to me.

A few minutes later, imagine my surprise when the younger woman turned, stood and marched aggressively up to me & asked, why are you at our table? I was very taken aback but few things render me speechless so I asked, is this your table? She replied "no but it's our tent." I said, it's a public table. She said I was rude & I could have asked them if I could sit under their tent. While I'm pondering this [private tent/public bench] conundrum, my thought was, she might have a point [in that I could have said something rather than just sitting down] but I didn't like how she approached me in such a confrontational manner.

Well, before I could make amends/apologize for "crashing" their tent [by sitting at a PUBLIC table], she began to behave like a ghetto hood rat "nigga" if you will. She called me rude and then she pulled out the B word. Yup, she called me a bitch. I was so appalled, like, really, are you kidding me?!

It was at that point that I noticed she had a little girl with her... maybe 5 or 6 years old. So as the hood rat is yelling at me and taking up a posture like she's about to fight me, she obviously didn't realize it but I was, by my behavior, lecturing her on how to deal with a [simple, dumb really] conflict: 1) I remained sitting, even in the face of her finger-pointing and agitated, aggressive behavior and 2) as she's dropping "B bombs" like they're going out of style, I remarked, great example you're setting for your daughter. It did not even occur to me to trade insults/call her profane names as she was doing to me. Oh wait, I did call her "ghetto," oh dear... which just made her even angrier than she [quite irrationally & unjustifiably] already was.

So anyway, I remained sitting and each time she yelled a profanity, I would tell her about the "perfect" example she was setting for her daughter to grow up just as ghetto as she. At that point, her husband or boyfriend or whomever he was, arrived on the scene. He mean mugged me a couple times, just to make his presence known, then proceeded to take down the tent. At one point he DELIBERATELY collapsed the tent in such a way that it hit me in the head. When that happened, I literally and immediately felt the blood rushing to my head [in anger] and I actually looked around for something that I could pick up and neatly insert into his ghetto neck but... I refrained. I maintained my cool. I stood, stepped out from under the tent.

At that point people nearby were beginning to take note of the scene unfolding. My other half was nearby but I did not call out for him. I knew with certainty that he would make the mean mugger who'd collapsed the tent on me, EAT the tent. Hood rat continued ranting and raving, even more loudly and more agitatedly now, since her mean mugger was present/had her back. By that time I had resumed my seat at the disputed table and continued to respond [to her profane rant] by calling her ghetto and highlighting her idiotic behavior in front of her daughter. I think I also called her illiterate [on the presumption that an educated person would not resort to such idiotic behavior... that an educated person would be easily able to use NON-profane words to express themselves]. The mean mugger at one point said to me, "you need to stop running your mouth." I replied, I can say what I want and there's not a thing you can do about it. Luckily he left it at that/continued boxing up his tent and eventually they left.

Soooooo... all this to say, that the way the "young lady" behaved, is the type of person white people dislike. In fact, I submit to you, she's the type of person that a GREEN person would, and I personally do, despise! Every time I hear the black/white discussions in the post-Zimmerman verdict days, and in fact I've long held this view, that it's very often NOT about [skin] colour, but [ignorant] behavior, that thing they call "swag" that black Americans very often display.

Don't get me wrong... I have many dear friends who are black Americans, or African American... whichever term you prefer. I'm not painting all black/African Americans with the same brush. I guess I'm saying, before you pull/throw out/brandish the "race card," admit a few truths about self■

Copyright © Luceele Smith -- July 23, 2013

St. Thomas Carnival 2013

St. Thomas carnival 2013 was a memorable one! My awesome little brother Tmeed El & I were, in V.I. speak, "bussing nuff lime." We had a lot of fun, ate a lot of food, met a lot of new freinds and just had a really incredible time.

Tmeed El... not only my little brother, but my hero (& photography tutor) too!

Monique & I, "liming" in the village
Photo by Tmeed El

Me & two of my uncles... Basil & Leroy
Photo by Tmeed El 

Claudette Peters (Antigua) performing in the "village"
Photo by Tmeed El

"Mah good fren," Lester & I
Photo by Tmeed El 

Copyright © Luceele Smith -- June 2013