Have You experienced racism at work?

[WhenWhatWhere]

Just wondering how bad this issue of racism in the workplace is.

We all know that there are not enough black, asian and minority ethnic people in board level positions in the work place.

However, I am wondering what sort of racism, be it visible or invisible have you faced at work.

I know this is AIBU, so myAIBU is that there Is more racism in the workplace than we think there is.

@RichPetunia

This won’t be popular, but I have watched a colleague of mine get away with holy blue murder because she’s black. I’m talking consistently bad timekeeping and bending of the rules. Never anything done. If I say anything to her I’m told I’m only criticising because of my ‘white privilege’. No I’m not. I’m criticising because there’s two different sets of rules depending on your colour.

Loads of white people do that. Literally one black person does it and you attribute it to her being black and fixate on it, rather than seeing it as just yet another cheeky fucker amongst many.

White privilege is being able to be a great big cheeky fucker under the radar and with almost zero scrutiny.

I would love to know whois voting YABU and what their reasons are for voting that way.

The other day someone on my team suggested playing a game where we submit baby photos and guess who is who and someone said, "no prizes for guessing Este," as I am the only black person on the team and I just felt so uncomfortable to be called out in that way.
I could envisage laughing and saying exactly what that colleague said in that situation. I don't think that is racist. It would be the same if there was only one male on the team.

Este, I had exactly the same situation (not with childhood photos, but another recognise-a-colleague) but due to being on the offensive end of the ginger spectrum. For you it probably was just another drop in what sounds an extremely unpleasant environment, but not necessarily racist in this case.

@noteverythingisblackandwhite Nobody has the right to tell me how I should feel about someone using my race as the punchline in a joke. The person who made the joke literally never speaks to me and is usually quite frosty, so cannot hide behind the friendly banter excuse and should not have felt comfortable being so overly familiar. She then went on to ask everyone for a photo and didn't ask me, then discussed the results of the game and didn't include me. It was completely unnecessary & made everyone else uncomfortable as confirmed by several other people on the team who approached me to say so.
If you are saying you would be happy to make someone feel uncomfortable in this way for literally no reason then I have to assume you are not a very nice person.

@NotEverythingIsBlackandWhite your example is shit and is yet another example of someone on MN negating a black person's experience of racism.

In my primary school we studied stereotypes and as part of it we brought in baby pictures. You couldn't tell whether some of us were boys or girls as we were wearing neutral clothing and had short hair.

Whilst I appreciate the attempt to empathise, the comparison between singling out a person with ginger hair/a man and singling out a black woman is a false equivalence. The overwhelming majority of people with ginger hair are white, most offices are largely skewed male, so both still benefit from the privilege that comes from from being in the majority. Devising a game that I was not able to play, then going out of her way to tell me I wasn't allowed to play it when it was already patently obvious, when I am the only black person on the team and one of only two black people in the entire building is quite simply, not on. And yes, I am prepared to die on that hill.

[quote RedRumTheHorse]@NotEverythingIsBlackandWhite your example is shit and is yet another example of someone on MN negating a black person's experience of racism.

In my primary school we studied stereotypes and as part of it we brought in baby pictures. You couldn't tell whether some of us were boys or girls as we were wearing neutral clothing and had short hair.[/quote]
Thank you.

This is going a few years back but I have an ex colleague who referred to a black client as coloured. That ex colleague is now an MP. I've not personally experienced racism as I'm not from an ethnic minority but I live in a diverse community and that incident really shocked me.

@WhenWhatWhere the colleague who helped in the second case wasn't more senior he had just been the target of bullying himself but managed to stand up to the bully and get the bully to lose his job. He was aware it would work out like that in my case.

Yes all the time. Small things...where are you from, assuming I’m good at math and studious because I’m Asian, assuming I learn piano because I’m Asian, assuming I’m in my career because my parents pushed me into it, sexual comments because I’m ‘the docile Asian female’, assuming I’m in this country because my husband is white (not because i am actually british). It goes on and on. Sigh. Also racist people just not liking me on sight. Also people hating taking instructions or working under an Asian person.

The photo game is not exactly an inclusive game unless you have vVERY diverse workplace.

Yes I’ve experienced racism at work, but I voted YABU because I do not agree that your statement is a known quantity: your said your YABU/YANBU is there Is more racism in the workplace than we think there is

Who is this “we” you are referring to? And how do you know what this collective “we” think? Furthermore, how do you know there is more racism than what this “we” think exists?

@Este67’s anecdote and the responses to it are a classic example of the need certain white people have to minimise and dismiss racist experiences. I’ve seen it a lot recently, both on MN and in real life, where someone suffers a racist incident such as being stopped by police for looking suspicious and then a white person chimes in with “Well, that’s happened to me before too. You just see it as racist because you’re looking for it.” Was that white person stopped solely because of their skin colour? No. Are they statistically far more likely to be stopped? No. Will it, in all likelihood, ever happen to them again? No.

"Nobody has the right to tell me how I should feel about someone using my race as the punchline in a joke."
I haven't told you how to feel.

"The person who made the joke literally never speaks to me and is usually quite frosty, so cannot hide behind the friendly banter excuse and should not have felt comfortable being so overly familiar. She then went on to ask everyone for a photo and didn't ask me, then discussed the results of the game and didn't include me. It was completely unnecessary & made everyone else uncomfortable as confirmed by several other people on the team who approached me to say so."
Your update puts a totally different complexion on the scenario.

"If you are saying you would be happy to make someone feel uncomfortable in this way for literally no reason then I have to assume you are not a very nice person."
I definitely wouldn't do that and would have thought that the comment would have been a prelude to such a game not taking place, not to doing it but without you. The colleague sounds like they are particularly unpleasant.

@Este67

Whilst I appreciate the attempt to empathise, the comparison between singling out a person with ginger hair/a man and singling out a black woman is a false equivalence. The overwhelming majority of people with ginger hair are white, most offices are largely skewed male, so both still benefit from the privilege that comes from from being in the majority. Devising a game that I was not able to play, then going out of her way to tell me I wasn't allowed to play it when it was already patently obvious, when I am the only black person on the team and one of only two black people in the entire building is quite simply, not on. And yes, I am prepared to die on that hill.

Hear hear. As a ginger who has also been invited to play Guess The Baby Pic, I can (& did) alter the colour to a black & white image. I can disguise myself to fox my colleagues & you patently can’t. What your colleague said to you was downright nasty little racism.

I do so wish people didn’t equate ginger hair negativity with racism. I’ve heard it before and not only is it bloody insulting, it’s also a fantastic example of All Lives Matter whataboutery.

RedRum, I am impressed. In my workplace, that is unheard of.

Plmoknjib, it’s all so wearing. The bit about hating taking instructions because of your skin is so true!

@WhenWhatWhere yep. A lot of people have real issues when coloured people exceed their expectations of them. They like coloured cleaners or nail technicians but not in any role higher than theirs.

Not me personally but I have a client who was telling me about her support worker. She said 'she's black' and pulled a face. I said ok. She said 'yeah.... big black woman, Shes scary looking i don't like her at all'. Had multiple clients going on about how it is so unfair foreigners come over and take all their jobs and all their money and get given free houses. Its always been white men and woman but mostly older men. Seeing as I look foreign myself its strange people are so forthcoming with their racist views.

My parents are Polish. I was born in the sixties in England.
I was forever pilloried for speaking “ double Dutch “ at home or for eating ‘foreign muck ‘ at home.
I was always left out or left last because I was ‘foreign.’
What I didn’t expect was for this viewpoint to last until more recent years.
I’ve always sided with folk who aren’t native since but I really , really hate is being told that ‘ at least you look like us!!!!’
I’ve heard this so very often. It breaks my heart.

We had a guess-the-colleague from a baby photo game at work.

Colleagues mistook the 62 year old Sri Lankan origin, bald-as-a-coot man's black and white baby photo, for being me, a then 28 year old Indian origin female. We don't look anything alike!

But we are both brown..so I suppose that was enough for some!

"I could envisage laughing and saying exactly what that colleague said in that situation. I don't think that is racist. It would be the same if there was only one male on the team."
You saying this implies that I am wrong to feel aggrieved by what was very clearly a racially motivated "joke." It undermines my feelings. The comparison you used also had that effect.

"Your update puts a totally different complexion on the scenario."
I disagree. It is enough to know that a white colleague singled me out because I am the only black person on the team. It was akin to pointing at me & yelling, "haha, you're the only black person here." This was in a corporate environment, not the pub. It may not have been burning a cross whilst wearing a white hood but it was a microagression and that was clear from the first comment I made.

Yes and it was bullying to do with my hair. It was a long time ago and the worst of the bullying occured over the course of 12 months but I still struggle to keep my composure when I think of it.

I was asked, on my second day in the job, why I was “that colour”... I’m mixed race and was a bit flabbergasted. And I’ve had so many colleagues do the whole “so where are YOU from then?!” thing, when they basically have meant why are you brown/you have a weird name - where are you from.

Yes, I have (as a white person, working in a workplace where I was a minority).