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.

@WhenWhatWhere

Adventure.

Words fail me. I did however know that ‘aggressive’ would come into it. All your contributions, performance, outcomes all get cast aside and what they picked out was that in a role play, you were ‘aggressive’.

Are you seriously surprised?

When I made complaints on the phone to a large building society they called me "aggressive". I turned around and asked them if they would like all my phone recordings of our conversations. They swiftly backed down and when I took my complaint to their regulator, they decided not to use that as their excuse why they refused to deal with my issue. They just said they hadn't dealt with it.

Hence unless I record phone calls when I make complaints about companies I only do it in writing.

I have been very lucky in that I've only ever worked in places where all of the examples on this thread would be viewed with horror! It's unutterably shit that this keeps happening - surely people can't blame a lack of awareness anymore

I think some of the examples here are down to a lack of awareness such as what terminology is acceptable to use and MN is actually very good for keeping up to date. I did diversity training about 8 years ago in a local authority job and was told to use "people with disabilities". A few weeks ago I read (not here in this case) that you should say "disabled people" yet I always thought that was unacceptable. Equally I didn't know "people of colour" was wrong until I read it here as I have a couple of beauty books which refer to "women of colour". I didn't know "throwing a paddy" was offensive either until I read it here. Whatever negatives MN has, it's great for opening your eyes to the world.

Some of the other examples are shocking though, especially in the context of a workplace.

I don’t think I have seen racism in my work. I have seen a very poor colleague claim racism every time concerns were raised though (she was spectacularly rubbish but seemingly her defence that she was subject to continual racism made her unfireable).

So one of the posters is fed up of working with ‘old, white men’, surely that’s racist, ageist and sexist?

Sigh.

Again, with the need to minimise racism suffered by people from the BAME community by chiming in with a ‘well, what about this?’ type comment. I hope you’re joking.

@Asdf12345

I don’t think I have seen racism in my work. I have seen a very poor colleague claim racism every time concerns were raised though (she was spectacularly rubbish but seemingly her defence that she was subject to continual racism made her unfireable).

She can be sacked if her performance isn't good enough. Clearly you have useless managers and HR. I have seen people sacked on performance grounds claiming racism and even had it thrown at me. Funny thing was while I was getting a team sacked, I was trying to ensure another team where most were the same ethnicity but were good performers wanted to stay.

Racism, no. Anti-Semitism, yes.

I work in a multicultural team, all in total harmony, socialise occasionally outside work - eat out at Halal restaurants. The only issue I recall was when we had a couple of Muslim ladies who would switch constantly between speaking English and their own language whilst in the office, which made many of us feel uncomfortable. They were spoken to about inclusivity, and it was all sorted. I think if issues are addressed as they arise, it stops things escalating.

RedRumTheHorse,

Nah, I wasn’t actually surprised, more sad.

I wonder how we can challenge these micro aggressions which have massive impact upon us. If you challenge each micro aggression in isolation, you are told you are being over sensitive or aggressive. . If you let it go unchallenged, you open the doors for more rubbish being thrown your way.

So sorry for so many of the experiences on here.

A black woman friend of mine, who is a mid level manager recently went with her team to meet with clients. Despite having introduced herself and her role, the head client asked her over coffee "so are you on one of those summer apprenticeships then?" "No" she answered "oh an internship?" "No - I'm the project manager"... "oh so you have a real job! Well done!"

The "where are you from?" question being considered racist does make me sad. I love to know/ understand and learn from people's cultural and national heritage. While it wouldn't occur to me to ask this question of somebody whose accent was local, I would want to ask it if there are genuine signs that they may have been born or lived in other countries. For me, someone with multiple lines of experience or heritage is richer - it attracts me. And I am sad that those kind of conversations need to become taboo because they may be misinterpreted. I don't like the feeling that difference is meant to be invisible/ unspeakable, or having connections to other countries could in any way be seen as negative.... (therefore cannot be asked about)..... but I understand that the question comes with a painful legacy of meaning lots of other things.

Yes, NHS wards. Either deliberately or intentional racism.

"A colleague was complaining about a nurse being crap at their job because they couldn't understand English very well."

Not sure how this is racist. Being able to understand your patients and colleagues, and they, you, is crucial in healthcare.

*or unintentional racism.

BraveGoldie, I don’t mind the ‘where are you from’ question if its genuine interest because you are right, a lot of people are genuinely interested and it starts pleasant conversations too.

However, a lot of the time I get asked where am I really from in an othering tone.

@Lifeisabeach09

*or unintentional racism.

They could speak English perfectly well and it was only the afro-caribbean and asian nurses it was aimed at.

There are also plenty of white nurses that fuck up too.

DH has been asked where he’s from numerous times. When he first started his job nobody would talk to him.

I worked with someone Who was polish who openly called British people fat, lazy, arrogant etc. This isn’t racism though

I grew up in the seventies. At my school we were taught that “ coloured” was more polite than “ black”. The same teacher told us that “ white” was wrong too as we all had different shades of skin. I’m not defending that but I do understand why some people clumsily use they wrong words. They are not necessarily racist .

Yes, have regularly been called a Pikey, paddy, mick. Asked if my dad tarmacs drives. Do I have lucky heather to sell. Any pegs? Every department I’ve ever worked in, it’s been ‘bantz’ about the Irish.

Sat in a meeting (Oct 2001)
Asian colleague was staring into middle distance.
Boss says. "What you thinking about, X. Are you wondering which building you're going to fly your next plane into..."

The other 4 of us looked horrified, then at the floor. Then the meeting carried on.

Same company, I (I'm black) was in a senior manager meeting - my first one and somebody put forward a proposal about how to deal with a problem.
Financial director went "well I don't want to be the one to put the n~~g~~ on the woodpile but this plan won't work"
I was too scared to react. I mumbled something about an inappropriate phrase but nobody backed me up and the meeting carried on.

There are tonnes more from my time at that company but those were the most horrific.

My NHS Manager decided I was from a Traveller family because I looked more like the patients from local sites than I did the other white members of staff and I wasn't racist about them. Demanded I put it down on the Staff Ethnic Monitoring Form. Overheard my name and the P*y word used in the same sentence drifting down the corridor from her office.

Thing is, she was technically correct through my Grandfather.

Still didn't give her the fucking right to make that assumption. And the Ethnic Monitoring Form was optional, so she was also in the wrong for demanding I completed it to her satisfaction.

Strangely, I was never needed for any high profile work and there were frequent checks in my office when 'things' went missing.

I know what I think. Not worth doing anything about it though, as I was already planning my departure.

@Floraflower3
Oh, I see. I took it literally as if their English was poor as it's been known to happen. I worked with an Italian nurse who came over as part of a recruitment drive-she could only speak a few words of English. She learned on the job though!

I haven’t ever experienced racism at work but have known people who have as I was involved with their cases as a trade union rep. I have however seen quite open xenophobia towards German colleagues though it was a few years ago, this is in higher education by the way so hardly the poorly educated.

I moved to Scotland in the 1980’s I constantly got anti English slurs.
I Went To a posh work dinner and dance with my husband only last year, and one of his colleagues said your wife English!! He just said is she!!

We live in Nigeria for many years, my husband would often have to go to meetings at other company’s and would often be told to leave as they did not want to see any white faces . He use to find it very funny because then a few hours later they would start to phone asking questions that he could have easily answered at the meeting. He would often then just but his mobile on silent.

@notanaturalmum That is absolutely horrifying, I am so sorry that happened to you. Please don't blame yourself for not saying anything, I completely understand what it's like to go into shock and not know how to respond. You were a victim and the people in that room let you down by not saying anything - absolutely disgusting.

Yep, been given less hours than white counterparts.

I’ve been told, “Black people are so lazy... Apart from you.” I confronted them, said it was rude, racist and plain offensive. Was told, “Aw, didn’t mean to upset you.”

Regularly serve a white, male, middle class MP, he will downright ignore you as a POC. But happily engage in conversation with my Lithuanian, Polish or English employees.

I was turned down for an internal transfer because of my race. Apparently I would upset the other members of the team who were all from the same race (different to mine). I'm white. I experienced multiple incidents of racism (and sexism) in this particular company. Which is why I left.

read yesterday about edward enningful , editor of vogue, being denied entry to vogue house, his office, in mayfair.
the security guard stopped him, only, and told him to use the tradesmen's entrance round the back.
in this day and age. you couldn't make it up.
fair enough he didn't recognise him, but he couldn't have recognised any of the other workers either.
he was a replacement stand-in, the regular 60 year old guard was shielding/quarantine at home. the stand-in guard was sacked.