Once upon a time, I just got back home from America. I almost lost my job in Nigeria for speaking assertively to a driver while I was on a company training in US.

My crime: Daring to gently appeal to the white cab driver who failed to come for me the previous day, “Please, if you fail to come pick me up after work closure at the time you promised to come for me, I will be stranded and lost…”

Unknown to me, the driver was doing community service for an offense (unknown). Listening to his misrepresentation of my plea, my white managers (in US) cascaded my purported bad behavior back to my home office in Nigeria. According to them, I was rude (not true) to a white taxi driver.

Sadly, my boss(es) who taught me to “do not accept poor service or anything that is not right”, did not speak up for me. They will rather sacrifice me, beholden to our white bosses.

The company is a great company, and I had many memorable experiences with many Americans (including white cab drivers).

This might have been a one time off experience. But, I almost lost my job for having the effrontery to complain about poor service from a white driver.