So…the last one about the NYC lawyer is so funny to me because of what happened quite literally only last week at my work.
One of the senior members on my team walks up to a group of associates and says, “Hola!” to everyone. A junior member of our team turns suddenly and exclaims “That is offensive to me! This is America and you should be speaking English in the workplace, NOT a foreign language! I find this completely offensive.” He then emails our boss and complains about it…to which we all shake our heads. He won’t be disciplined or told he is wrong. The senior person (a woman) was politely told “Hey, just don’t use spanish around him anymore.” simply to defuse the problem.
But he won’t ever change. He’s like this on many issues. And it mirrors that NYC encounter to a tee.
EDIT: also, the mistaken for a flight attendant thing…that’s not unusual to me. I have been mistaken as an employee at Target, grocery stores, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Home Depot, etc etc. Some people don’t seem to really be able to identify within their brains “Hey he DOESN’T have on an orange smock, so maybe he doesn’t work here” and simply are just wanting help from anyone they can get. And yes, asking a question about light bulbs or which DVDs are on sale is a far cry from “clean up my mess”…it’s just something I have frequently experienced.
Well! What a special little broflake that one seems to be!
You might want to hide from him the fact that there are literally entire countries, where people don’t regularly speak english! He’s little head might asplode!
Also, any idea what ethnicity he is, I mean, other than generic white. Like, I wonder if his ancestors came over and lived in a community where their mother tongue was spoken, which was and IS not uncommon, still today.
totally agreed. Funny thing is…with this guy I don’t think it’s racism as much as it is nationalism. If it were a white Swedish dude speaking danish…he’d complain in the exact same manner.
We all agree it’s messed up, even our boss. She just knows that we are reasonable human beings and he is a dick.
Edit: @Mindysan33 god knows. He is from Ohio…which probably explains more than it should. This dude gets angry when women where open toed shoes in the summer (against dress code!!) and when men wear their shirts untucked (also against dress code). One young lady has a full sleeve on one arm and one leg of ink and he FREAKS when she wears a sleeveless top and skirt in the summer showing off her tats. Her ink is gorgeous, but he says its disgusting and unprofessional.
He’s one of those people…just constantly criticizing anything and everything that doesn’t fit his narrow world view.
It always boggles my mind that many of these white racists forget that their great- or great-great-grandparents came over on a boat to Ellis Island in the late 1800s or early 1900s, speaking no or little English, with little or no money.
But I shouldn’t be surprised - the Irish hated the Italians who came next who in turn hated the Polish who in turn hated the Koreans and so on down the line. Stupid hatred because of nationalism and prejudice. Sigh.
Yeah, don’t get me started about that guy. He’s an Ashkenazi Jew, which means his forefathers lived in eastern Europe and most probably spoke Yiddish in countries where the main language was Polish, Russian or Hungarian. Nothing wrong with that and so did mine btw., but hey… gimme a break, right?
Your story makes me wonder how invaluable such a dude is to your company; whether he’s indispensable, and perhaps that’s why his behavior is tolerated. If he’s not, then the company is treating him as a missing stair, and that just enables his casual bigotry.
Not that it makes it in any way ‘okay’ if he is somehow ‘important;’ just more understandable from a business perspective, if not an ethical one.
So it’s yet another Mediocre White Man sliding by on his privilege; can’t say I’m surprised.
Not saying he should be fired, but not checking his behavior at all will only encourage it, which could come back to bite the company in the ass, should he ever decide to escalate his conduct.
cc @Melz2 I will say that it is only a situation that he does just enough to keep his job. He will never get a promotion or another job offer. He gets the bare minimum raise or even none (which only fuels his persecution complex).
Not saying its ok that he gets to slide by…but honestly knowing how this place is, it isn’t because he is a white male. We have a lot of folks like him and it is a diverse group.
Agreed that one day he is going to be a real problem because of his particular brand of behavior. I think they just keep hoping he will quit.
That was seriously the best damn line of the whole show so far.
Well, it’s not like we Black & Brown folks have no reason whatsoever to be ‘outraged,’ though the comparison to Fox News was a little needlessly insulting and not exactly a fair equivalence.
Ugggh one lives just down th street from me. Needless to say but dog walks avoid her sidewalks best as possible. Of course she’s nice to me because I’m white, but whenever I’m forced to listen to her my skin crawls. She sucks.
Here’s a fun response to the NYC lawyer who doesn’t like hearing Spanish:
Aside from being merely socially unacceptable, bigots need to realize that spouting one’s shitty opinions publicly is basically begging to be trolled by smartasses online.
