In thinking about it I think I made a racist comment today but I'm not completely sure.
I was riding home with my coworker and telling her about an incident that happened between my cubicle neighbor and a new Supervisor.
The new supervisor is black with an accent that I haven't been able to identify (not sure where she comes from) and she is very "short" verbally. For example, the other day she asked me to do something which obviously couldn't be done in the time frame allotted but she would not accept that and demanded that it be done immediately (in a nice manner). She would not help or answer questions (I also didn't know completely how to do what she asked) and just said that I needed to do it immediately and walked away. I assume that she didn't know how to do it (hence why she couldn't answer my questions about it) and really didn't know what she was asking and she just wanted to satisfy a report or her Supervisor. I got it done with the help of several other people but the way she went about it was ridiculous and there was no way I could have done it by myself.
Today, she asked my coworker to do something exactly the way she wanted it done and wanted no excuses pertaining to the fact that it was inappropriate or flat out wrong. She asked him to put some (computer) comments on someone else's case / report that was screwed up and told him exactly what she wanted written. The worker (who didn't screw up the case) said that he wasn't comfortable and wanted to point out in the comments that the case was being corrected. She would not allow that and told him to write exactly what she said. He then said that he needed to put a comment in the case that he was directed by a supervisor to put these new comments in the case and she said no, that was inappropriate and if he did it she would just go back to her desk and erase that part anyway. So, he did what she said (and then filed a grievance with our Union).
When I was talking about this lady on the way home to my coworker who gives me a ride home everyday, I pointed out that I thought this was cultural, possibly having something to do with wherever she came from (I'm pretty sure she's from Africa). I was thinking that maybe she was Nigerian, etc. as I've encountered this type of behavior before but then I realized that I was probably being racist. Even though I think that different cultures DO have characteristics regarding the way they do things. I've worked with people from many different countries and found that many people have different cultural characteristics that are specific to the country from which they came.
How racist am I? Perhaps I just didn't explain myself very well to my coworker on the way home (who's black... ) and with whom I have a very good rapport.
I was riding home with my coworker and telling her about an incident that happened between my cubicle neighbor and a new Supervisor.
The new supervisor is black with an accent that I haven't been able to identify (not sure where she comes from) and she is very "short" verbally. For example, the other day she asked me to do something which obviously couldn't be done in the time frame allotted but she would not accept that and demanded that it be done immediately (in a nice manner). She would not help or answer questions (I also didn't know completely how to do what she asked) and just said that I needed to do it immediately and walked away. I assume that she didn't know how to do it (hence why she couldn't answer my questions about it) and really didn't know what she was asking and she just wanted to satisfy a report or her Supervisor. I got it done with the help of several other people but the way she went about it was ridiculous and there was no way I could have done it by myself.
Today, she asked my coworker to do something exactly the way she wanted it done and wanted no excuses pertaining to the fact that it was inappropriate or flat out wrong. She asked him to put some (computer) comments on someone else's case / report that was screwed up and told him exactly what she wanted written. The worker (who didn't screw up the case) said that he wasn't comfortable and wanted to point out in the comments that the case was being corrected. She would not allow that and told him to write exactly what she said. He then said that he needed to put a comment in the case that he was directed by a supervisor to put these new comments in the case and she said no, that was inappropriate and if he did it she would just go back to her desk and erase that part anyway. So, he did what she said (and then filed a grievance with our Union).
When I was talking about this lady on the way home to my coworker who gives me a ride home everyday, I pointed out that I thought this was cultural, possibly having something to do with wherever she came from (I'm pretty sure she's from Africa). I was thinking that maybe she was Nigerian, etc. as I've encountered this type of behavior before but then I realized that I was probably being racist. Even though I think that different cultures DO have characteristics regarding the way they do things. I've worked with people from many different countries and found that many people have different cultural characteristics that are specific to the country from which they came.
How racist am I? Perhaps I just didn't explain myself very well to my coworker on the way home (who's black... ) and with whom I have a very good rapport.