situation at work involving an intern vol. white privilege?

[bendover]

When I read this the first thing that came to mind was, "hmm... I usually don't ever hear non-white people refer to themselves as 'colored''"

Kind of like those paid people that conveniently show up at Trump rallies holding up a sign saying "Blacks for Trump!" It's like, we know they paid you to hold this sign and sell out and that Black people generally wouldn't identify themselves in that manner.

The only person that refers to black people as "THE Blacks" is Trump.

No offense, and I could be wrong but this smells like you're the intern and came here to poll NT to see if you were treated fairly so that you could go back and debate and defend yourself at the water cooler.

You probably think the earth is flat too.
Colored = Minority

 

[jape]

bruh i've literally never heard any grown man speak about boy scouts much less tying knots but the story is funny

 

[Mark Antony]

For me an intern wouldn't be worth any possible EEOC complaints and the money it would cost. He'd be out.

 

[moderndarwin]

Yeah I think the OP is saying he’s a minority of color and his two coworkers are black. This whole thing is a stretch to me. I actually think he showed OP and not the two black coworkers. OP didn’t actually say anything to ol racist but more ignorant white boy and now wants to get some social warrior justice rep and validity to those situation.

My main question is - why wouldn’t the two black coworkers do all this HR stuff? This is more specifically racist and ignorant toward black people and not really a racist toward minorities in general play.

 

[danger style]

Close thread, ban op

 

[ahat]

Boy scout? I bet the intern wears cargo shorts

 

[grimeyy]

Dude should have focused on getting rid of his boy scout cookies instead

 

[debso]

OP where are you from? Just wondering because I've never heard anyone refer to themselves as colored outside of videos and docs from the civil rights era...

 

[PRIME]

Boy scout? I bet the intern wears cargo shorts

 

[Kinfolk]

You probably think the earth is flat too.
Colored = Minority

NO.

I'm familiar with the term.

But nobody refers to themselves that way anymore, smart guy.

 

[PRIME]

for 2 black ppl and a colored person.

Just caught this

 

[Master Zik]

Just caught this

Just going with OP's description.

 

[Chiron]

As a manager myself...

Even though his joke was a swing and a miss, if he didn't threaten you with it or say anything explicitly racial, then a talking to is all he's gonna get... and instead of crying to the boss, you could have just politely told dude that you thought he was a little out of line with that and it's racially sensitive. He either would've said ok or defended himself (at which point you know what time it is). You don't gotta be charmin ultra soft, speak up. Once you have told them that you were uncomfortable with something and they keep doing it, it's way easier to pursue workplace harassment charges.

I expect employees to come in to work and do work related tasks for 8 hours and go the **** home.
It is irritating AF to have to deal with employee drama because they want to do / talk about stuff thats not work related. Why am I addressing a conversation about boy scout knots? We don't work for the boy scouts of America. Save that getting to know each other bs for unsanctioned happy hour after work. Exchange numbers and go hang out. Otherwise, I don't need everyone forming personal friendships and sleeping around at work. If you come to me saying that you can't work with so and so because yall got in an argument about dog breeds or some stupid ****, the first thing I'm going to say is how is that preventing you from doing the work. I work in a warehouse/industrial setting. If it isn't stopping you from physically performing labor, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for that.

I'm sure that sounds harsh, but I'm a pretty chill boss. Get your work done and I wont bother you at all. If you need me to find something for you to do because you cant handle having downtime at work without starting some drama. I can do that too.

 

[MakeNTGreatAgain]

Yeah I think the OP is saying he’s a minority of color and his two coworkers are black. This whole thing is a stretch to me. I actually think he showed OP and not the two black coworkers. OP didn’t actually say anything to ol racist but more ignorant white boy and now wants to get some social warrior justice rep and validity to those situation.

My main question is - why wouldn’t the two black coworkers do all this HR stuff? This is more specifically racist and ignorant toward black people and not really a racist toward minorities in general play.

Yes i am considered a minority.

and he showed me and my black coworker at the same time. my other black coworker was at his desk behind us and turned around fully to take a look shook his head and turned back around.

I dont know why they would not report it. they probably are afraid of getting backlash? im not sure. one of my main reasons of reporting it is because i see how they are treated just because they are black and tbh im tired of seeing that ish happen. especially in a professional environment. which is why its still bugging me.

OP where are you from? Just wondering because I've never heard anyone refer to themselves as colored outside of videos and docs from the civil rights era...

i work in southern california, in a pretty suburban type area at a decent sized company with maybe 2000-2500 employees i think.

if u want more information about my background i am of arab/middle eastern decent.

As a manager myself...

Even though his joke was a swing and a miss, if he didn't threaten you with it or say anything explicitly racial, then a talking to is all he's gonna get... and instead of crying to the boss, you could have just politely told dude that you thought he was a little out of line with that and it's racially sensitive. He either would've said ok or defended himself (at which point you know what time it is). You don't gotta be charmin ultra soft, speak up. Once you have told them that you were uncomfortable with something and they keep doing it, it's way easier to pursue workplace harassment charges.

I expect employees to come in to work and do work related tasks for 8 hours and go the **** home.
It is irritating AF to have to deal with employee drama because they want to do / talk about stuff thats not work related. Why am I addressing a conversation about boy scout knots? We don't work for the boy scouts of America. Save that getting to know each other bs for unsanctioned happy hour after work. Exchange numbers and go hang out. Otherwise, I don't need everyone forming personal friendships and sleeping around at work. If you come to me saying that you can't work with so and so because yall got in an argument about dog breeds or some stupid ****, the first thing I'm going to say is how is that preventing you from doing the work. I work in a warehouse/industrial setting. If it isn't stopping you from physically performing labor, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for that.

I'm sure that sounds harsh, but I'm a pretty chill boss. Get your work done and I wont bother you at all. If you need me to find something for you to do because you cant handle having downtime at work without starting some drama. I can do that too.

My boss is pretty chill, but with how he handled this situation it irks me. why not get rid of an intern after a week after a stunt like this? i feel like he should protect his permanent employees instead of a temporary summer intern.

we had a meeting the next day where my manager addressed it and said there was an incident where some people felt uncomfortable and basically told us to think before we act or say something because we are all family and we should respect eachother.

 

[Barbados Slim]

Is it a paid internship?

 

[MakeNTGreatAgain]

Is it a paid internship?

yes sir

 

[pill clinton]

So you snitched? lmaoooo can't relate

 

[Chopper]

Tough to take OP serious (especially about this) with a trolling *** screen name like that.

 

[diego]

I guess I can’t ever knock someone for going to HR but the OG post reaked of “snitching” and in my personal life, I just can’t get down with that.

Also found that distinction between “colored” and “black” to be somewhat interesting. I did wonder if this was a knew descriptor for middle eastern folk though. In the grand scheme of things, they are relatively new to being discriminated against in America.

OP - Did claim Middle East which is the one thing that would’ve made the story believable in my mind.
I’m very conflicted right now as to what to believe.

 

[gregzzy23]

@Methodical Management how many sn’s does op have we’re tryna see something

 

[sonoftony]

OP is white. I don't refer myself as "colored" FOH

 

[Teknoman]

So at work we got an intern last week.
it was his first week so we was still feeling him out and learning about him as he was about us.
so the team he was working with was me, and two others. i am a colored person and my other two coworkers are black.
so intern is telling us hes a boy scout and stuff
this is like the 4th day hes here. mind you his father is a senior programmer at the company which is how he got the internship
so hes telling us about his boy scout career and how he can tie all these knots and stuff. so i ask ole boy whats his favorite knot
and he says oh i have alot of different ones and im like okay
so a little later he tells me he made a know and im like what is it, and he made a noose from an ethernet cable and he found it funny and showed my black coworkers at the same time

we told him thats not something you should be doing at work.

So I contacted someone in HR and a couple days later they asked me to come into their office.

i explained to her what happened and when i mentioned noose and she was like and?????
and she had a blank look and said whats that . mind you she is a manager in HR

i was dumbfounded and i asked her if she can google it. so she googles it in front of me and says oh okay. i feel like she still didnt know what it was. and she told me she would speak to my manager about it.

anyways fast forward a day and i hear my manager call dude into his office for about a 10 minute talk
later we have a usual meeting at work and my manager throws in that their was an incident that made people uncomfortable and we should think about others before we say or do things because we are a family and should respect each other

did my manager handle this the right way?

i still feel uncomfortable to work with someone although a temp that thinks its okay to do what he did. and a manager who thinks a talk is enough discipline for doing that.
to me this spells out white privilege, a white college kid is treated like a kid because he made a mistake.

what do yall think?

Kid is just a ******* idiot. You did the right thing just in case since it is now documented.

 

[scotchbinginton]

So you snitched? lmaoooo can't relate

Mannnn.... I can’t look at this post serious anymore.

 

[Brownstone]

Everybody says the love working for small companies, but stuff like this would never go down at a publicly traded firm. Miss me with this ****.

 

[MakeNTGreatAgain]

Tough to take OP serious (especially about this) with a trolling *** screen name like that.

its just a screen name b.

I guess I can’t ever knock someone for going to HR but the OG post reaked of “snitching” and in my personal life, I just can’t get down with that.

Also found that distinction between “colored” and “black” to be somewhat interesting. I did wonder if this was a knew descriptor for middle eastern folk though. In the grand scheme of things, they are relatively new to being discriminated against in America.

OP - Did claim Middle East which is the one thing that would’ve made the story believable in my mind.
I’m very conflicted right now as to what to believe.

the reason i went to HR is because if non colored person gets offended whats the first thing they do? report it.
so thats what i did.

Everybody says the love working for small companies, but stuff like this would never go down at a publicly traded firm. Miss me with this ****.

i always wondered if things like this fly at those firms. i kinda wanna get into a company like that.

today this this other lady who works in our department kinda as an office manager came into our office and we talked a little and she was saying how i used to be so quiet and this filipino dude jumps in to the convo and from his desk says, yeah they say you should watch out for those people with beards, they kill people!

mind you about 6/7 of us were in our office at this time.