Monday, October 10, 2005

Racism Exists

Now, while I know that you all aren’t shocked at that statement, I had an encounter the other day from which I am STILL fuming.

Lemme ‘splain.

There’s this white man that sits about 30 feet from me who up until the other day, I THOUGHT had some semblance of sense. Let's call him FATBALL Sure, he’s goofy and looks like he’s 54 months pregnant (he’s one of those men with skiiiiiiny ass legs and a GINORMOUS stomach). Sure, FATBALL routinely loses information (like once a month) that he shouts to the office “aaaaaaaaaw shoot! I just lost 3 ½ hours worth of work…..I just made a mistake and deleted my work!!!!”(see:dumbass). This happens to this jackass EVERY MONTH! You’da thunk it that he’d have LEARNED to hit the “save as” key by now, but noooooooooooooo. So, as far as I’m concerned, you deserve what you get. Either your fingers are too freakin fat or you are just too dumb to hit the save option.

Whatever…..So me him AND MY BOSS (see: VP OF HR----that would be HUMAN RESOURCES) were at my desk talking. My boss had come over to ask the following question: "if we were allowed to, would you come dressed in a costume on Halloween?" My "no" came out before she'd finished her last word. I do NOT do dumb-ass costumes in front of these goofy as white folks I work with. period. Just like they'll never see me drink....they'll never see the "real" Robyn.

So, FATBALL says TO ME, "Hey,.... don't take this the wrong way (me thinking :uh-oh. whenEVER a white person says THAT dumbass shit, it has ALWAYS been something that they should not be saying, so my spidey-sense was going BATSHIT at this point). Well, I wasn't expecting what he said next.

FATBALL says (in a light,airy and jovial way) "You know what you could be for Halloween?" (note: I NEVER SAID I was going to be SHIT, not here OR otherwise). I said "nooo......"

He says "you could dress up as Aunt Jemima" *echos*


WHAT IN THEEEE FUCK?

O.K., I can see the look on ya'll's faces right now. It's the SAME GATDAMN. look I had when he said it.

*close ya'll's mouths*

I had a blank look and was speechless. Here. lemme 'splain. If I had have said something, ANYTHING to REALLY address this at THAT moment, trust that I would not eb able to blog to ya'll from this work location today, because my "nigga-stinct" started to go OFF on his ass.

My boss did a quick eye shift that said, without saying anything "oh shit...I know that shit is MUY inappropriate, but if this bitch don't say shit, I won't either".

Now, me and this guy sit abotu 30 feet from one another and he is a "simpleton" kinda person and I am soooo not trying to justify him saying this in ANY way, I am just describing his affect as it were. He is friendly and talks to much. He's one of those nice-but-irritating people who everyone in the office knows if you don't want a simple comment to turn into a 45 minute conversation about NOTHING, DON'T talk to him.

So,I said "uh.... I guess I COULD, but" then before I could say another word, my boss interrupts and said "But would you even want to is the question" with a quizzical look on her face. Don't ya'll KNOW that her bitch ass sat RIGHT THERE and did NOT say a DAMN thing to his lily white ass!! This is the bitch that if you even repeat a 1/2way questionable joke, and SHE HEARS IT.....baaaaaby....her ass will call you into her office quicker than you can BLINK!!!! So I was shocked and APALLED that her "I-used-to-work-for-the-Dept.-Of-Civil-Rights"ASS( as she always notes, to try to prove, apparently, how just and true to the cause she is...whatever bitch) didn't say SHIT! As my supervisor who is the VP OF HR (as she likes to tout), she should've had a discussion with his ass right then and there.

So, then this muthafucka starts talking about how one of his "family members" had a cookie jar with the "aunt jemima/mammy " character on it,and how nice it was, but it got cracked and then started talking about the merits of Hattie McDaniel......what the FUCK EVER!. I was done. The conversation eventually trailed off onto something else and he went back to his desk. I felt wronged and could not get my thoughts together to even reply to this jackass. Because since I AM the Manager of HR, if I'd have responded in kind, it would be MY ASS who got a more serious reprimand! DAMMIT! Now while I have NEVER thought that he is OURTIGHT racist, I feel that there are TOO many white people floating around who have NO RACIAL sensitivity because they live in their "white" communities and deal with their "white " friends and their kids go to a 99.99997% "white" school. You see, here, in and around Detroit, most white folks live waaaay outside the city limits (as far from us as possible) and drive a rediculous amount each day just to go to work. So.... because most blacks (even the middle class) do NOT live out there....they are TRULY not having to DEAL with our black ASSES. Hence, they live their lives thinking and really convincing themselves that #1, racism is dead and #2 that saying shit like that is not that bad.

O.K., so this happened last Tuesday. My boss had to leave shortly after that happened and I wanted to talk to my husband about it, so I didn't say anything about it to her on Tuesday. I didn't get a chance to talk to her Wednesday. Thursday rolls around and she was there for a LIMITED time, so I did take advantage and went to her. Here's the convo:

Me:I wanted to talk to you about what Dan said the other day. I felt that it was inappropriate and wanted to ask that you talk to him about it. As the VP of HR, and you were witness to it, I'm sure that he'll understand...
Her: You know, I am soooo glad that you mentioned that.... I had planned to have that conversation with him, but I am soooo glad that you mentioned it.... I think he knew it was wrong as soon as it came out of his mouth but then he kept going on and made it WORSE, instead of better....
Me: Yeah, so when are you gonna talk to him?
Her: I am going to talk to him next week....I am glad that you mentioned that *fake ass hoe*

Now, her fake ass had NO designs on saying SHIT to him UNTIL I said something because she needed NO statements, no details, no NOTHING...the bitch was THERE! She is FAKE AS HELL and I can't STAND her! She is full of bullshit and babyoil and I KNOW IT!


Fast forward to Friday: She comes to me and says "I was thinking....I think that it would come from you better, because you two are peers and are the same grade and it's good for him in terms of learning from someone who is on his level and you just happen to be the MANAGER of HR, so that's good too" (see: this stankin ass bitch is trying to get outta dealing with it. trick ass.) Now this is not the FIRST time she's tried to pull that "i'mma defer this to you" when she just didn't want to hande some shit. Now, usually this bitch has her nose up in EVERY single item IN THIS OFFICE, but how con-VEN-ient of you to "defer it to me" because "this will be good in terms of building a relationship and he'll take it well from you because you two are both managers, blah, blah, blah". Ya'll do NOT KNOW how much I cannot STAND her ass. I would say hate, but in order to hate someone I believe that you have to have first loved them. And I don't (and never have) loved that hoe. I just chuckled and listened to the rest of her bullshit diatribe and said "yeah o.k."

Fastforward to today: I have made the decision (actually, I'd made it when she suggested that "get out of jail free" bullshit for her own ass on Friday), but I am NOT talking to him. I am not going to tell HER that I am NOT talking to him and WHEN she asks have I, I will tell her that I think that it is HER job to tell him. I mean, she was THERE!! I could see if she were not witness to the shit, but she is the TOP HR person and you are deferring it to me?????? Hell no bitch you will NOT get to sit idly and comfortably by while I do YOUR job. Nope. I don't get paid to. So.... I'll update ya'll on this shit as it unravels.


But answer me this. If that muthafucka DIDN'T know that what he was about to say was FUCKED UP.....why in the HELL did he preface it with "don't take this the wrong way"? Yeah.... my though exactly.

8 comments:

Chubby Chocolate said...

Wait. Ok...no wait...I can't stop laughing at Zed's comment, but he's right on point. Make a big fuss about it. Don't mind what you think Fatball would think of you. Take this opporunity to raise some hell.

Fatball is the epitome of most Whites in the Bay Area, only it's reverse geographically-Blacks move away from the city (SF and Oakland) because they were forced out by way of gentrification.

People think the Bay Area is such a peace & love, bohemian, color blind melting pot but it's not.

Most whites will call you nigger while in the comfort of their own home and smile in your face during the day. I think that's worse form of racism because ya never know...PLEASE KEEP US POSTED ON THIS!

LadyLee said...

I can see your point, Disco Diva, in not saying anything to Fatball... It's not your job to say anything to him about it. It's your boss's job. And yeah, you let her know this everytime she asks you about it, or if she tries to get on your ass about something you're supposedly doing wrong in the workplace,i.e., keep this card in your back pocket!

I have this same problem on my job, and I have to keep telling my boss, who is black and is my age, yo you deal with that craziness. I don't make enough money to deal with these fools. They are incompetent, and I, ladylee, am freakin' brilliant... Just make sure my bread is stacked yea high and is direct deposited into my bank account every other Friday.

And Oldboy knew exactly what he was saying anyway, especially when he said "don't take this the wrong way." He knew. It would have been better to bust his tail "politically correctly" right then. Be on alert for him to do it again. Nip it in the bud at that very moment...

And I understand the other commenters point of view. But hey, you're a professional, and you gots to keep your job.

Interesting post... I'd like to know what happens...

Anonymous said...

Damn, I fell out when you said "close your mouth" b/c after I read this, my jaw was on the floor. It reminded me of that "A Different World" episode where Whitley and Kim were debating over including Aunt Jemima in some sort of presentation at their dorm. Anyways, you are right, his bitch-ass knew what he was doing when he said, "Don't take this the wrong way..." And I can't believe that he wasn't reprimanded expeditiously.

Knockout Zed said...

I was just reading this shit again. Fatball? ROTFLMAO!

KZ

Anonymous said...

I am so feelin' you on this. I had a similar "stupid white people" moment not long ago on the job. Makes me crazy. And it's not just ignorance, cuz he knew it wasn't right. No, it was worse than that, it was his (and many like him) acknowledgement of the wrongness of his words and cavalier "I don't care, I'll say it any damn way" attitude. Another reason to seek refuge atop your own heap. Sorry you had to deal with that.

Knockout Zed said...

Fatball!

KZ

Luke Cage said...

I came by here twice today because I was interrupted while reading this story miss Robyn, and that entire exchange was craaaayzeee. You know that all of us who are of the black ethnicity has a Fatball somewhere lurking about right?

Yours seemed to take the cake. But I've got to give it to you. You showed unbelievable restraint in the face of blatant ignorance and racism. That in itself is a hard act to pull off. The ignorant Aunt Jemima query alone should've had a black eye coming to dude, and amazingly in '05, folks still don't get it.

And don't believe the hype. Talking about "don't take this the wrong way." That's instant forewarning letting you know some ignorant shit is about to be said.

Sid said...

ROFL @ Humainty Critic's assessment.

Unbelievable.

But if we went around throat-choppin everybody who deserved it, there'd be a lot of no-talkin' folks out there.