Was this woman racist or am I thinking too much about this?

[BlondeGinger]

I'm not sure if I've got the wrong end of the stick here or if a woman in my office was racist to one of my colleagues earlier.

We have access cards to get in and out of the office and my colleague was coming back from lunch at the same time as another lady (she doesn't work on our team but in another one, sometimes in our office). She has to walk past our bank of desks to get to her own and from the amount I've seen her around, she must have also seen my colleague and I at some point.

Anyway, so my colleague gestured for other lady to go through the door first after using her card to open it. Other lady then says to colleague "I'm sorry but I've never seen you before in my life, how are you able to get in here? Can I please see your ID? I'm sure you'll understand me asking you what with everything going on in the world at the moment." My colleague showed her ID and said that she recognised her from the team she works in, did she not recognise her since she walks past her every time she's in? Other lady just said "no" and walked off through the door.

For context, my colleague is a lovely Indian lady and other lady is approximately 80 and very sour faced.

My colleague came back and told me all this and it was clear that IF this woman was being racist, it had completely gone over her head, as she just thought how strange she'd been to ask since she walks past us every day and hadn't recognised her.

AIBU to think this woman was racist to my colleague with the "everything going on in the world" comment and asking for ID, even though my colleague had a pass and used it to open the door? Or am I overthinking this? Should I have a word with our manager?

Sorry for the lengthy post!

We don't know whether the lady was being racist, as we can't know whether or not she genuinely didn't recognise her colleague.

We do know that the op is being ageist.

We don't know whether the lady was being racist, as we can't know whether or not she genuinely didn't recognise her colleague.

Literally every other thread about anything else can be taken at face value - except when it's about racism.

Delete as appropriate:

• "Not everything is racist FGS!"
• "Well it wasn't that racist"
• "Stop being so sensitive"
• "Are you sure she/he didn't mean it another way"

So if, for example, your MIL (or whoever) tells you to fuck off and slams the door, well as none of us were there to see and hear it we can't be sure that's exactly what happened.
Did someone block your car in? Well maybe they didn't because all you've provided is a diagram and there weren't any other MNetters around to verify it.
Does your husband criticise you about everything and constantly undermine you in such a low level way that makes it seem as though he's actually not doing anything? Well as none of us have witnessed it we can't be sure.

Racism is a criminal offence - I certainly don't take it lightly.
If this person was being racist then they should lose their job . However it's not possible to ascertain this from the information given in the op.

'So if, for example, your MIL (or whoever) tells you to fuck off and slams the door, well as none of us were there to see and hear it we can't be sure that's exactly what happened. '
In the 'MIL' situation you describe the op knows that it happened.
In the case of this particular thread the op can't be certain.

Racism is a criminal offence

No, it really isn't. Would you like to rephrase your point?

Literally every other thread about anything else can be taken at face value - except when it's about racism

No it can't. Most threads can't, and certainly any thread where you are trying to guess what is in a third parties mind cannot!

My eyes are crap & I have part facial blindness. I'm on the fence, you can't say what was in the older lady's head.

Well done her if she's still working at 80yo, though.

'Hi I haven't seen you before, are you new? Which department do you work in?'

That would be the normal approach if you felt uncertain if a person was supposed to be there. Clearly she had a card to open the door though so....

Yes I think it sounds like indirect racism.

I'd be sour faced if I had to work at 80 too!! Where do you work??

More likely racist than not. But without further data points, you can't prove it. And if you said anything to HR at this point, they wouldn't be able to do anything either. I would write down the date and describe what happened. If another incident happens, then I would take it to HR at that point.

In my workplace we have to keep the back office secure because the nature of our work means we hold a lot of confidential information. Like your office, we have access cards to get in and out. I don't know if your line of work is the same as or similar to mine but we are actively encouraged to challenge anyone we don't recognise - we have regular emails about it. I think letting someone we didn't recognise into the back office space would amount to a disciplinary issue. But not because of the terrorist threat - it would be because of the potential for a confidentiality breach.

Like you say, what makes it potentially racist is the reference to 'everything that's going on at the moment'. There was no need to link it to that. If I were to challenge someone I'd say something along the lines of 'sorry, I don't recognise you l, and you know we're required to keep our back office secure'.

You say your friend didn't seem to pick up on any racism which makes me slightly inclined to think there was no racism.

Unless your friend is very new to the UK or is the type of person who can walk around in their own little bubble of loveliness oblivious to other people's nastiness I would think she would have become attuned to recognise insidious racism.

But then for all I know maybe she hasn't.

But still I think her take on it may be key.

This utterly screams prejudice and racism. I am baffled at posters saying 'no'. This bigot asked the lady's ID because she appeared to be Asian and was therefore possibly a terrorist.
And of course terrorists target shoe factories in Swindon. (or whatever the building is). She didn't fear attack or suspect the lady. IT was plain racist bigoted behaviour to make a non-white person feel undermined.

So much reaching

I literally did my annual training on physical safety in the office today. One of the things they stress is to challenge anyone you don't recognise whose security badge you can't see. Or tell security if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself.

It doesn't sound inherently racist to me, only that the woman is Indian is this something you have thought. It might be, but I think if your friend didn't think it was then you should stop thinking about it.