third shift: meditation on work and race

[El Nino]

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"I'm not talking about being rich, I'm talking about being wealthy. Shaq is rich. The white man who signs his check is wealthy."
~ Chris Rock

---

"Hey, help me with something," my coworker said.

"Yeah?"

"Help me calculate my raise."

"Just add 3% to what you're making now."

"Hey, I'm not good with these things."

"Fine." I punched it into the calculator and held it up for him. "Like that."

"Huh? Wait, no, that's not my hourly. I make--"

---

I used to work the graveyard shift at a biomedical lab. The position offered no third shift differential, paid less than Starbucks, and involved pipeting large numbers of blood samples under strict deadlines every night. I had just graduated with a degree, and it seemed like a decent way to get experience.

After a year passed, a lot of us realized that we hadn't been given evaluations or raises. We started asking the department head. He kind of gave us the runaround. Problems with upper management, budget issues, etc. One tech got fed up and applied for a transfer. The boss actually tried to stop her, but she got around him by going straight to the head of the other department that she wanted to get into.

The rest of us should have realized that there was something wrong with his behavior.

He hired two new technicians. They didn't have degrees or experience--one came from the loan industry, had no clue what a pipet was, much less a centrifuge or an antigen. The position didn't require degrees (though it was preferred), so no one saw anything wrong with this.

We were all doing fine, choking together on mutual misery every night, rushing to meet 100% completion deadlines. The two new guys made more mistakes than everyone else, but we tried to help them out here and there.

And then one of them accidentally revealed how much he got paid per hour.

Then **** hit the fan.

The girl who first found this out had a degree in bio. She had been surprised that he didn't know the names of basic lab equipment. Now some of her suspicious were confirmed. She and two other techs started investigating everyone else's hourly wage. They got me to talk to another new hire from China. I found out that he made the same as me, as her, and everyone else, except those two guys.

The company had a diverse set of personnel working as bench technicians, including people from Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and the African diaspora. Our supervisor was Filipino; the lead tech was Mexican. The three girls who decided to investigate the wage issue were black--two were African American, and the third had immigrated from Somalia. All three had college degrees, two in bio, one in chemistry. If asked to name the top techs in our dept, I would have named those three.

This story doesn't make much sense unless I reveal everyone's race and ethnicity. The head of the dept was white American, and so were the two guys he hired and paid more to do the same work as other people with degrees and experience.

You hear about this happening. You just don't expect it to happen to you.

I handed in my letter of resignation, and so did the two of the three girls. I wasn't there when it happened, but the third walked out after the boss told her to fix a mistake that one of other techs had made (one of the two who earned more than the rest of us). She didn't just walk out. She exploded, went off on him, then stormed out. She stopped only to say goodbye to a few people. She hugged an older Filipina woman who had been with the company for about forever, and it was this woman who told me what happened.

---

"What a horrible person," one of the two guys told me later. "The boss was even trying to be civil about it."

My only response was to laugh hysterically.

Some time later, they were both let go for issues regarding work performance.

---

Some people will complain about what they perceive as a "double standard" in what society deems racially offensive. The fact is, this double standard exists because of real life inequalities.

It isn't simply a matter of someone "bringing up the past" to get ahead. It's a matter of the present having been shaped by the past. The effects of slavery, genocide and colonization don't go away after a single generation. To be enslaved, to be ethnically cleansed, to be colonized is to have everything taken from you. To be taken against your will to a new continent, to be moved to a reservation, to be ruled by a puppet government that answers not to you but a foreign power, is to start at ground zero. It means starting with nothing. You will spend your life at the most basic level of sustenance, and you will have nothing to leave behind for your children, not even the means to an education. And your children will have nothing to offer their children. They start at a disadvantage because you started at a disadvantage. So poverty is passed down through the generations.

This isn't a phenomenon exclusive to non-whites (ie. the Irish, the Eastern bloc after the collapse of the Soviet Union). But it is an effect that often cuts along racial lines, and it is highly noticeable in American society.

Progress doesn't happen in a single lifetime. It takes generations to make progress. Each generation moves ahead at small increments. Eventually you go from being property and three-fifths of a human being to having a daughter who is smart, hard-working, well-educated, and good enough at what she does to earn a degree.

And even then they'll still pay her less than a white man for doing his job not the same, but better.

Language doesn't exist in a vacuum. It exists within a greater context, and it is that context which determines its effect. If the effect of a word is offense, then that effect is due not just to the word but to the environment in which it is spoken. It is the responsibility of the speaker to decide how they wish to be perceived and judged by the things that they say.

Recently an American politician signed onto a statement proclaiming that blacks had it better under slavery than they do now under President Obama (http://rollingout.com/news-politics...s-better-off-during-slavery-than-under-obama/).

Progress is never complete.

We're still here, working the third shift. We move forward slowly. By increment.

 

[Riddle]

Reading this made me feel sick to my stomach.

 

[Jam Stunna]

I know what this thread is in response to, and the problem is that people who think that watermelon jokes are okay are people who simply cannot understand the world from other people's perspective. I don't know if this is some weird aspect of white privilege ("But I want to tell offensive jokes! I want to use the N-word!"), or if it's just immaturity or myopia or what have you. But the whole attitude appears to be, "It's not my fault that I offended you, it's YOUR fault for being offended."

Same with your work situation. I'm certain that your supervisor didn't think he was doing anything wrong; the people he hired were worth their money, and you were worth whatever they paid you. That it's racist is irrelevant.

As a side note, this reminds me of a conversation I had where a manager told me not to discuss how much I get paid with my coworkers, in case someone does make more or less than someone else. It sounded like divide-and-conquer management bull**** when I heard it then, and this story just confirms that opinion.

 

[SuperBowser]

<insert generic comment about how racism doesn't exist anymore>

I don't think many people realize how common this is in the workplace. Good to hear you guys stood up for yourselves though.

[Some companies have a policy where employees are banned from ever discussing wages with another]

 

[frotaz37]

("But I want to tell offensive jokes! I want to use the N-word!")

I've definitely noticed attitudes that seem to reflect this. It's interesting because a lot of people react like using the N word and racist jokes are some treasures that black people are keeping from them just to annoy them or to fulfill some selfish/egotistical desire.

It's common for workers to be told not to talk about how much they make, and in my experience, it's so managers can play favorites, paying who they "like" the most money while leaving those who have the most work experience, are the least lazy, and are most qualified to settle for less.

 

[Alien Vision]

I can understand all of this full heartedly, but everyone seems to only look at it from the depths of hell. We need to stop generalizing something wrong to the extreme. Knowing how many things go on in life revolving around indifference varies dramatically. This nullifies what Jam Stunna said about ''It's not my fault you were offended, it's your fault''. It is valid in cases, but not all of them.

Alot of comedians make jokes about themselves, and practically everyone's indifference. That is fine, but what you guys should really fight against, is when it actually affects their very lives. When they're forced to do something with great precision, but somebody who does a worthless job gets paid more for obvious reasons. When they are nothing but an object to somebody. When they are given hell just because of their indifference, this is when you should be taking action. No need to get all worked up over something that does involve your own willpower.

Words cannot hurt you, but having your life controlled unfairly can.

 

[El Nino]

I'm certain that your supervisor didn't think he was doing anything wrong; the people he hired were worth their money, and you were worth whatever they paid you. That it's racist is irrelevant.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he doesn't think of himself as racist and he probably thinks that every decision he made was justified. He might have thought that those two guys just made a better impression on him during the interview. But then, how much of the first impression was dependent on them putting their best selves forward and how much of it was his own personal inclination towards them because of their race? Was he interviewing the guy from China (who had worked at a lab before) and thinking, "This guy has a thick accent, hard to tell if he's smart or not"?

And it's hard for most people to fully put themselves in someone else's shoes. But there are degrees of willingness to try. I had nothing personal against the two guys who got paid more, but one of them had a hard time being convinced about what was going on. I know that almost no one likes the idea the someone else gave them a free pass on something that they want to think of as their own accomplishment. I am the same way. But there's this idea that there must be something wrong with YOU for bringing up an issue that might be race related. Not sure if I should call it denial or not.

This nullifies what Jam Stunna said about ''It's not my fault you were offended, it's your fault''. It is valid in cases, but not all of them.

I'm pretty sure that very few people actually choose to be offended at something. It's like when someone slaps you, it hurts. You can choose how you react to it, but you can't choose whether it hurts or not.

Alot of comedians make jokes about themselves, and practically everyone's indifference.

Do you mean "indifference" as in "apathy," or did you mean "difference" as in diversity?

About comedians, I think the idea is that if you can get someone to laugh, you're okay. But the nature of the joke, how you set it up, etc., is going to determine that.

No need to get all worked up over something that does involve your own willpower.

Words cannot hurt you, but having your life controlled unfairly can.

Well, obviously, you're right in that there are a lot of things that are way more important than racist language. Things that involve money, laws, etc. are way more important than racist jokes. But those things take a lot of time to turn around. I am not suggesting that we give those things up. It's just that, in the meantime, while we work on those things, no one likes getting slapped in the face.

And I'm not saying you can't use offensive language. In the U.S. it's protected under free speech. I can also stand in the middle of the street and start shouting at pedestrians about how I effed all their mothers. It's free speech (and possibly disorderly conduct as well). But I won't deny that it's offensive.

I understand if people want to be offensive if offensiveness is the point. But it's odd to say something that hinges on racist undertones in order to be worth mentioning in the first place, and then to deny those undertones. I think the saying is "you can't have your cake and eat it too."

Humor can be a good way of developing rapport with people. But if you're going to use racist humor, you have to make people laugh, or else it's just racist. And whether or not you can get people to laugh (with you, not at you) is going to depend on how well you understand it from the other side.

 

[Alien Vision]

I'm pretty sure that very few people actually choose to be offended at something. It's like when someone slaps you, it hurts. You can choose how you react to it, but you can't choose whether it hurts or not.

They are just words, Nino.

Do you mean "indifference" as in "apathy," or did you mean "difference" as in diversity?

Sorry, I ment diversity.

About comedians, I think the idea is that if you can get someone to laugh, you're okay. But the nature of the joke, how you set it up, etc., is going to determine that.

It's the entire idea that it's a joke, Nino. A joke that fails, is still a joke in it's form.

Well, obviously, you're right in that there are a lot of things that are way more important than racist language. Things that involve money, laws, etc. are way more important than racist jokes. But those things take a lot of time to turn around. I am not suggesting that we give those things up. It's just that, in the meantime, while we work on those things, no one likes getting slapped in the face.

Just pointing out things that I felt like I needed to share, because it seemed like there was alot of misty heat going on in this thread, and nobody was looking at the big picture as a whole. Instead, they were spouting how this **** is not funny, and should be condemned up the ***, when there are some things that people just shouldn't blow out of proportion. (Emphasis was intended)

And I'm not saying you can't use offensive language. In the U.S. it's protected under free speech. I can also stand in the middle of the street and start shouting at pedestrians about how I effed all their mothers. It's free speech (and possibly disorderly conduct as well). But I won't deny that it's offensive.

I only use cuss words to emphasise my points, and the level of sincerity I have in my ideas.

I understand if people want to be offensive if offensiveness is the point. But it's odd to say something that hinges on racist undertones in order to be worth mentioning in the first place, and then to deny those undertones. I think the saying is "you can't have your cake and eat it too."

Words are pointless because we can choose what to do with them. Seriously, they are just words. People let words hurt them. This is solid truth. Besides, just because someone spouts out statements, or funnies that deliberately targets things like your skin colour, doesn't make them racist. They are only racist if they have hate for you just because of your skin colour.

Humor can be a good way of developing rapport with people. But if you're going to use racist humor, you have to make people laugh, or else it's just racist. And whether or not you can get people to laugh (with you, not at you) is going to depend on how well you understand it from the other side.

I bolded the part that completely caught my attention. El Nino, you are a nearly flawless debater, which is why the bolded part caught my attention so quickly. Making jokes, and saying **** about someone's ethnicity, or skin colour, doesn't make you racist. When you are 100% hateful, and spite them because of these traits. THAT IS RACISM.

 

[Fatmanonice]

This reminds me of conversations that I often have with my parents about minorities in America. As conservative WASPs in the lower upper class, it's a world that's completely foreign to them so conversations usually go down south pretty quickly. They believe that people only go through hardships because they're not working hard enough to overcome them and this especially applies to minorities and the lower class. Like them, I think a lot of people are unintentionally racist because they think that everybody starts off about even and the quality of their life is solely determined by the choices they make. A lot of people also seem to believe that the past doesn't matter either kind of like the idea that since slavery was abolished and the Civil Rights Movement was successful, black people shouldn't have any major obstacles now-a-days to overcome. All in all, the problem seems to stem from a lack of empathy which, like in your situation, causes people to do completely thoughtless things and not think twice about it.

 

[SuperBowser]

Making jokes, and saying **** about someone's ethnicity, or skin colour, doesn't make you racist.

It kind of does if the target of the joke feels offended and you're aware of it.

Or maybe it's just being a jerk, iduno.

 

[RyuReiatsu]

I bolded the part that completely caught my attention. El Nino, you are a nearly flawless debater, which is why the bolded part caught my attention so quickly. Making jokes, and saying **** about someone's ethnicity, or skin colour, doesn't make you racist. When you are 100% hateful, and spite them because of these traits. THAT IS RACISM.

I woke up to take a piss and browsed through the UB on my iPod and I disagree with that part of your post.

You don't need to have 100% evil thoughts to be evil. Hitler thought he was a savior and indeed did what he did under a lot of hateful emotions. But what about the soldiers? Or even population supporting Nazis? They didn't know it was wrong, they thought it was right. Justice, whatever you want to call it. They believed that they were gonna fall if not from those actions.

Also, many soldiers believed that it was wrong and were killing people despite not wanting to. But they did, they killed people. They killed people and stayed part of Germany's army because they did not want to get shot and mistreated due to treason. But that doesn't change the fact that what they've done was wrong and that makes them the baddies. Otherwise, Hitler and a few of his generals would've been the only ones to be considered bad. Nazis are the combination of Hitler, his generals, the soldiers and all supporters. The ones responsible for the massacres, while unwilling, are still included regardless.

I used to work at a pawnshop, with crackheads, ****s and all the likes being the main clients, the regulars. And there was that white woman that was obviously racist. She was constantly making racist jokes, while saying: 'No racial, I'm just joking.' None of her jokes were funny, AT ALL. She kept shooting the 'white are superiors' type of joke and trust me, none of my coworkers ever found it funny. Not even my white coworkers.

Never ONCE, did she ever spit out a 100% hateful insult. But she was obviously racist, and that's coming from a guy that has no issues with ethnic differences.

Also, by telling Nino that he is a near flawless debater feels like you are acting high and mighty, which I obviously believe is not the case. But words hurt regardless of what you think. Words are powerful tools, they are our way to express ourselves. They are communicating tools. I believe that some people are indeed too sensitive and take everything the wrong way but you still need a minimum of etiquette regardless of your environment.

Our mind is as sensitive as our body, if not more.

 

[Alien Vision]

I woke up to take a piss and browsed through the UB on my iPod and I disagree with that part of your post.

You don't need to have 100% evil thoughts to be evil. Hitler thought he was a savior and indeed did what he did under a lot of hateful emotions. But what about the soldiers? Or even population supporting Nazis? They didn't know it was wrong, they thought it was right. Justice, whatever you want to call it. They believed that they were gonna fall if not from those actions.

Also, many soldiers believed that it was wrong and were killing people despite not wanting to. But they did, they killed people. They killed people and stayed part of Germany's army because they did not want to get shot and mistreated due to treason. But that doesn't change the fact that what they've done was wrong and that makes them the baddies. Otherwise, Hitler and a few of his generals would've been the only ones to be considered bad. Nazis are the combination of Hitler, his generals, the soldiers and all supporters. The ones responsible for the massacres, while unwilling, are still included regardless.

I used to work at a pawnshop, with crackheads, ****s and all the likes being the main clients, the regulars. And there was that white woman that was obviously racist. She was constantly making racist jokes, while saying: 'No racial, I'm just joking.' None of her jokes were funny, AT ALL. She kept shooting the 'white are superiors' type of joke and trust me, none of my coworkers ever found it funny. Not even my white coworkers.

Never ONCE, did she ever spit out a 100% hateful insult. But she was obviously racist, and that's coming from a guy that has no issues with ethnic differences.

Also, by telling Nino that he is a near flawless debater feels like you are acting high and mighty, which I obviously believe is not the case. But words hurt regardless of what you think. Words are powerful tools, they are our way to express ourselves. They are communicating tools. I believe that some people are indeed too sensitive and take everything the wrong way but you still need a minimum of etiquette regardless of your environment.

Our mind is as sensitive as our body, if not more.

What? I was saying that he is a damn good debater. It had nothing to do with me. Go into the god debate thread, and soak in my humility. I DARE YOU TOO.

I stated my opinion, you disagree with it.. To each our own. Racism is only when the person is actually in their head treating you differently just because of your colour. If they have no spite towards you at all just BECAUSE of your skin colour. They are not racist. They are being offensive just like SuperBowser said.

Too bad. We are the master chariot of our mind, we have the willpower to ignore words that are a poor excuse to make you look bad. There will always be people trying to bring you down, because they want to feel better about themselves. I deal with people like this alot, and I always win in the end. I even had the majority of them stay silent after I spoke my mind.

As I said though.

To each our own.

 

[Uffe]

Well I sure hope you don't think all white people are like this. That would be a big generalization.

 

[El Nino]

Well I sure hope you don't think all white people are like this. That would be a big generalization.

No, I don't.

Making jokes, and saying **** about someone's ethnicity, or skin colour, doesn't make you racist. When you are 100% hateful, and spite them because of these traits. THAT IS RACISM.

There may be some confusion here regarding terms. To my knowledge, you're talking about the difference between prejudice and bigotry, not racism and non-racism. Prejudice includes holding views based on stereotypes and mocking a person's differences. Bigotry is outright hatred of a person based on those differences. Racism refers to the type of prejudice or bigotry. There are other types based on things other than race, such as gender, religion, or sexual orientation.

You can be racist without being a bigot because you can be prejudiced without hating someone. But when I said "racist jokes" I meant jokes that rely on racially based stereotypes in order to be funny. I wasn't referring to the person telling the joke or their intent.

I woke up to take a piss and browsed through the UB on my iPod and I disagree with that part of your post.

The UB makes for good bathroom reading material, doesn't it?

 

[Pakman]

Racism is only when the person is actually in their head treating you differently just because of your colour. If they have no spite towards you at all just BECAUSE of your skin colour. They are not racist. They are being offensive just like SuperBowser said.

I disagree with this. Racism is more than just consciously choosing to treat someone differently based on their race. Modern racism is more subtle. It is dangerous because it gets embedded into the way people live.

El Nino's boss didn't think he was being racist by paying less qualified employees higher wages. He didn't consider his decisions. He felt it was a reasonable thing to do without really considering race.

The problem isn't that he actively decided to pay these kids more because they were white. I doubt their race even crossed his mind. The problem is that he DIDN'T consider why it wasn't fair.

In my circle of friends, I have a white friend, Jim, and a black friend, Steve. Frequently Steve is late for whenever we are hanging out and Jim will make comments like Steve is late because he is black. When Steve was unemployed he cracked jokes about Steve being lazy because he was black. I have no doubt that Steve and Jim are really good friends. Steve never gets angry at these remarks but if you asked me if Jim was racist, I'd be inclined to say yes.

 

[frotaz37]

n my circle of friends, I have a white friend, Jim, and a black friend, Steve. Frequently Steve is late for whenever we are hanging out and Jim will make comments like Steve is late because he is black. When Steve was unemployed he cracked jokes about Steve being lazy because he was black. I have no doubt that Steve and Jim are really good friends. Steve never gets angry at these remarks but if you asked me if Jim was racist, I'd be inclined to say yes.

This type of thing is a perfect example of how a damaging stereotype has been turned into a joke that is considered by many to be all in good fun and acceptable to make, even though all it does is help keep the stereotype alive and perpetuate the idea that actions by white people are isolated incidents, while actions by others are race related.

If a white person is late, it's cause he's late.
If a black person is late, it's cause he's black.

 

[Alien Vision]

This is why the majority of our population is incompetent. How the different hues of someone's skin determines their actions is beyond me. Big Foot is more believable then these preposterous insults.

/Failsociety

 

[RyuReiatsu]

I disagree with this. Racism is more than just consciously choosing to treat someone differently based on their race. Modern racism is more subtle. It is dangerous because it gets embedded into the way people live.

This. Also, Alien, you might want to read your posts on other threads. Your opinion seems not to get together very well, contradicting yourself on several threads.