Racism at work

First, y’all now have seen BPT first hand. What is BPT you ask?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=black+people+time

Here is the reader’s digest version.

  1. Meeting with my racist sumbitch coworker. I announce plans for business developement which he slams down instantly as not possible and out of scope. Weeks later, I find out he summoned my underling to begin working on a pet project that resonated exactly with what I had presented as my own.

  2. In a meeting room, a narcessist supervisor constantly undermines my comments or ideas. If my status update is anything less than favorable, I get beraided and it is implied that this only happens with me, when this is far from the troof. Others who have less favorable status reports are able to scapegoat it on external factors which is an acceptable explaination. Not for me though.

  3. I work closely with FX in my line of work. When asked for assistance, I gave my answer. Coworker, “Are you sure? I don’t think that is right?” Me. “I’m sure.” Hours later my underling comes to me asking the same question for the same homie. Me. “I just told him the answer hours ago. Tell him, ‘What did CFAvsMBA say the first time!’”

In all honesty the diversity here is slim. I’d like to think I got in at an arms length application process. Howerver, it now makes me wonder if the slim diversity is a result of a bigotted environment. These are just my observations of blatent prejudice. There are certainly other instances where I wonder about the underlying motive.

So there you have my tirade. I was pissed a few weeks ago given other things going on in my life. However I cooled off and let it slide. Not sure if it’s worth building a case to present to HR, as they’ll probably follow suit with everyone else I work with.

yes, but the office babes dig you…

Evidence is pretty circumstancial / subjective. I’m not saying that it’s not rooted in some racist undertone, I don’t work there so I really have no basis. Crap like this happens to people all the time for a variety of reasons. My point would just be to advise you not to go to HR unless you have a concrete case. Otherwise it just turns into a giant sh*t slinging competition where the person with the higher rank nearly always wins, particularly since you’d be taking on several higher ranked individuals and relying on lower ranked individuals which will likely not have your back as they have no skin in the game. In fact if I was your “underling” and I got brought into this I’d definitely sell you out and take your position unless you were a close friend. In which case I’d only probably sell you out.

I’m underwhelmed. I thought it was going to be something like everytime a coworker exits their office and sees you in the hallway they lock their door behind them.

Let’s take them one at a time:

  1. Co-workers steal people’s ideas all the time, really no signs of racism here unless you are leaving something out.

  2. You say the supervisor is a narcissist right? If it’s a he, maybe he is threatened by your superior looks and success with the ladies. If it’s a she, maybe she wants a bite of the CVM sandwich and fights the urge by riding you hard, because she can’t really ride you hard.

  3. Was your correct answer so obvious that co-worker can’t believe it could be right or is embarrassed that he/she didn’t know it?

Really no seeing racism in any of these, but perhaps there are little things that didn’t come through in your admittedly brief descriptions.

underwhelmed. those cold ones got to him. I thought it was something like, every time you try to buy a coke out of the vending machine, some lovely blonde white girl steps in front of you and gets the last one.

I was hot and prob blew it out of proportion. I wish there was a story with a ‘colored’ sign near the recycling bin which happens to be next to a drinking fountain. But there isn’t. Just pissed due to things happening at work and things outside of work.

I like to boast that America is post racism. We’re so close. But now and again there is a zing to affirm we are not.

And BS, I’m not going to HR. I don’t go to war unless it is a last resort.

Fuggin CRY BABY

Yeah, it could be racism, but the story doesn’t really demonstrate anything one can really put one’s finger on as definitively racist.

It still sucks, though, and I can see why you would feel p.o.-ed. A lot of these kinds of things feel like they have happened to me too (I’m as white as they come, though with a hidden dash of Jew for flavor), and they are infuriating.

And as you look around for explanations for that behavior in a low-diversity environment that may have other hints of subtle racism from things that people say and do, I can understand that you might suspect that race is driving the issues. But from what you’ve written here, though it’s hard to say.

If you really think this is the case, you might start keeping a log of events in a notebook (well hidden). On the other hand, that could just make you angrier about it, as you accumulate evidence.

Anyway. I’m not saying your feelings aren’t justified, just that the evidence needs to be more conclusive if you’re going to make a definitive case to HR or anyone official.

its not racism…they just think you’re lazy, unintelligent, unreliable…i get that from my coworkers too at times when i am not on my A game…

^ True Bchad. It was that time of the month where I fly off the handle. How did you enjoy your bday yesterday? Did you throw down a big chop of meat at the Palm?

Sounds like typical difficult coworker office behaviour. Not necessarily racism. More likely just competitive type-a jerk syndrome.

Pick yourself up, it ain’t cause you’re a brother, most likely, it’s just because he’s a dick.

I’m sorry but BPT doesn’t even come close to the Desi Standard Time. Ever been to an Indian or Paki wedding? The invitation tells you the ceremonies will start at 6. Even if you get there two hours later, you don’t miss a thing.

And I agree with everyone else your coworkers are just being jerks thats all.

In other news, young slim shady is the sheit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes

Poppin’ tags son.

I can always feel whether a person is narrow minded and racist. But if it’s on the personal level, we can’t do anything about it - just accept that they are less intelligent than me and stop worrying about it too much.

1.5 year bump…


This seems like the right place to vent what’s been brewing for a couple of weeks.

A while back, my father-in-law (who is a corporate controller at a local company) was looking to hire a new accountant. He found a resume and called me to ask me if I knew the girl (which I didn’t).

Then he said, “Wait a minute. Her name is Shaniqua (or some other obviously “black” name) and she went to University of Louisiana–Monroe. Sounds like she’s black.”

Trying not to draw attention to the fact that he was being a racist asshole, I said, “Yeah, she does sound black.”

He replied, “Yep, that’s all I need to know. I’m not going to call her then.”


I’m not trying to pretend to be a saint. I’m not immune to saying off-color remarks from time to time. But rarely have I ever seen such a overtly racist comment. It’s one thing to be a closet racist, but it’s something else entirely to actually say out loud, “I don’t want to give somebody an interview because there’s a remote possibility that they might be black.”

It just really disappointed me. I was kinda hoping that we were living in some sort of post-racist society. But I guess we’re not.

lol

That last sentence was huge coming from a guy living in small town Texas. There is hope in this world.

^ Freakonomics had a study regarding this. Two identical resumes, one with Thomas Jones and one with Tryone Jones applied for thousands of jobs. Guess which one got more callbacks…

^ another recent study found both gender and racial biases in academia with people looking for professors to be mentors: http://www.npr.org/2014/04/22/305814367/evidence-of-racial-gender-biases-found-in-faculty-mentoring