to think this is really quite racist?

[JosieRosie]

I am an NHS Early Years professional and (when not out and about visiting my million settings!) work in an office with 5 others. I work in East London and our caseload includes children whose parents come from all four corners of the globe and obviously lots and lots of them have non-White British names.

There are regular conversations between my colleagues along these lines -
A: Oh, I took a phone message for you today
B: Oh yes?
A: Yeah, it was from parent of (half-hearted non-attempt to pronounce child's name)
A&B: (much laughter of the 'aren't these names daft' variety )

AIBU to find it outrageous that they find a non-White British name absolutely hilarious? Racist? Extremely childish and/or unprofessional?

wow that is very bad. I would have thought the older ones wouldn't have done it. Are the older ones in a position of authority and did they start it?

Of course it's unacceptable to do this in a professional setting. No one's saying these people cant have a laugh and lighten the mood in the office, but there are plenty of other ways to do that without using your clients as the butt of your jokes. Wether it is meant in a racist way or not, it is unprofessonal and distasteful. If I worked there it would seriously rankle every time they did it, I think you should say something, OP.

yanbu, surprised so many people think yabu - of course it is rude, and unprofessional!
if they work in early years with these dc they should know how to pronounce their names anyway, and if not then just make their best effort without laughing and making a stupid joke out of it.
and im another one that doesnt get what is supposed to be so funny about farideh??

Older ones not in authority but one of them is probably the ring leader. They only engage in this hilarious jape with each other usually. If they deliberately mispronounce a name when talking to me, I always say it correctly but don't comment further. TBH, it doesn't seem like age has anything to do with it - maybe rudeness transcends age?!

Claig - IME, it's the older ones who are the worst. There's a lot of hostility towards asylum seekers and anyone who doesn't speak great english too.

GothAnneGeddes, you may be right. It is definitely a sign of hostility, it's not just an innocent joke.

Why is laughing at peoples names racist?

GothAnneGeddes
People who do not speak English are costing the NHS 22million pounds a year in translators so can you blame them

Because the names are not funny and they appear to be laughing at most foreign names.
Laughing at names on the Simpsons, such as "Seymour Butz" can be funny, but laughing at names just because they are foreign sounding is not funny and is based on something other than humour.

YANBU

I worked for a certain local authority in East London a few years ago

this sort of thing was endemic. It was really, really horrible

I personally snigger uncontrollably ever time I remember that the composer on "Buffy" is called Thomas Wanker and the executive producer of "Lost" was called Jack Bender... But I'd try not to do so in a professional context.

I'm also glad I don't work with this chap

and wasn't at school with the lady here, five rows down and on the far right.

YANBU, although the names on the Unquiet Dad's last post were amusing. I have had a similar experience myself, after my son was born stillborn we had a genetecist visit us to go through our family tree (I think she was the nurse rather than the actual consultant, not that it really matters or makes any difference though). She seemed to be able to cope with our son's name (Malachy Aidan) but seemed to find Dh's family's names hilarious (most have traditional Irish or unusual Irish names) and made no effort to correct them properly.

The irony was she had a very unusual (non-English) name herself. I would never dream of mocking somebody for an unusual or 'foreign' name and DH was genuinely pissed of aboput this. My name is fairly common but pronounced in an unusual way, I can remember teachers at school correctiong me on my own name! As a teacher myself I come across lots of unusual names and yes, sometimes they are amusing (I have taught Gengis Khan, Barry Mcguigan, Glenn Miller and Victoria Cross) but I would never tell a student how they should spell or pronounce their name!

Pronounce them properly not correct them properly!

Salvador I do not have an English name

I also do not cost anyone anything in translation fees as English is my native language

possibly I am also not the only one for whom this is true

I defy anyone not to laugh at this

Silly & unprofessional but not enough information to say whether they were being racist.

Would they never laugh at an unusual white british name. I suspect if they are so childish, they probably would

catinthehat2 Okay that's funny, but I feel bad for the poor guy.

About 10-15 years ago they were talking about odd/funny names on a radio station and an elderly man called in saying he'd gone to school with twins named Ima and Iva Rottencrotch.

I know, he is all over the interwebs Tyra! HAving said that, I suspect ti's the kind of name where it jsut sounds completely ordinary after a bit though.

can we also not laugh at the silly names famous people give to their children

chibi what is your point,is your name funny?

one of my other names on MN is GeruptaSingh am I a racist because I am using a joke name that might offend humourless people

i don't get 'geratuptasingh'

I don't either

YANBU. My mil laughs uncontrolably when dd comes home from school and announces that she played with Sidra or Imran or Manjit. Racist. No other word for it. Salvadore I can see how your Geruptasingh user name could be considered offensive, since it's the punchline to a racist joke I heard at primary school.

When groups get into a silly excluding mood they can find any name (or any person) funny. It's childish, and IMHO the basis of bullying and racism. It is disappointing to say the least when professionals do this. Shows how very far we have to go as a society.

geruptasingh - get up to sing.