19 Sep 2018 How Do You Deal With Racism?

How Do You Deal With Racism?

I am not talking about confronting a neo-nazi or Klansman, those situation are pretty straight forward.  If you don’t confront them then you pretty much condone their actions.   There are times at work where someone will say something that just doesn’t sound right.  It might not be an overt racist statement but you can hear it in how it is said.  This can be challenging because you know people will get very defensive if you imply that what they said is racist.  

The question is, do you confront them or do you let it slide.  Now confront may be too harsh a word.  Do you talk to the person in private and ask what they meant? Sometimes they may not even know that what they said could be interpreted as offensive.  One guy at work used the term “Jew’d them down” when talking about negotiating a price on something.  He said it to a couple of people where a Jewish guy could hear it. I have to admit I did not say anything to him about.

A few months later this same guy said “why don’t they hire Americans” when complaining about having to deal with people who English is a second language. This time I could not let that go. As expected he got defensive, but I let him know that that was not acceptable.  If he does something like that again I will bring his supervisor into it. I know that it will cause an issue between him and I and it will be questioned on the floor as “what’s the big deal.”  However, in my experience you need to stop the “little stuff” because sooner or later bigger things will be said. 

Are you willing to put your career at risk to defend what is right?  I know many won’t.  They will say that their family is more important and if they lost their job it would impact them more than “a little bad language.”  My answer to that is you either have principles or you don’t.  Stand up for them.  It may have consequences but it is the right thing to do.