I try not to think that everything is related to race. However, for the most part, everything is related to race.
And there is no more "secretly segregated society" than the workplace.
Just about the time you start thinking you're part of the "team," someone will do or say something stupid to let you know that they have a predisposed notion of what African Americans are really like, where we live, what we eat, our educational background, our family makeup and how we really couldn't know as much as they do.
You can't always run to HR (in fact, I try to avoid HR) and say "they're being mean to me." Sometimes you have to take a deep breath, remember what you and your girls talked about at dinner last week and turn on some good old rap music.
Because despite its often explicit lyrics, nothing breaks it down in "plain English" like rap. The artists who have nothing to lose and everything to gain from their poetic prose and spitting the truth.
Yeah, I'm talking about them. But they don't know it.
Keep calm and carry on. But make sure you're wearing your headphones. Otherwise, you'll have another set of problems.
1 comment:
Now, that's what I'm talking about!!!
"They" are so comfortable with their privilege, "they" are also comfortable in their open stereotyping. HR, in most cases, is a joke when it comes to helping "us" with putting a lid on the racial BS that goes on in these places. "We" end up being the target of negative results from "confiding" in HR. Stay as far away as you can from HR, and get yourself a good set of earphones and so good hip hop music, get a rhythm, do the superb job you know you can do and remember that "they" will likely run into someone at the mall or at the gas station who will be able to tell "them" just what "they" need to hear when "they" "disrespect" someone on the street like they "disrespect" "us" in the workplace.
Peace Out!
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