experienced more racism here in 1 year than 20 years in CA (attorney, college)

[cis_love]

just a vent.. i've experienced more subtle and not so subtle racism in my year living in WA than the past 20 years in CA. today was my first day at my new job. i was being introduced around and one lady says to me:
RB (Racist BXXXX)-- so what's your first language?
ME: What do you mean? i only know one language, English
RB: Surely you must know another language. English can't be your first language
ME: Why would you think English is not my first language (with death glare)
RB: (stumbling around) I just thought... well, with your background... (slow fade)
ME: SMH ...

another day in WA, another unpleasant experience with an ignorant RB...

[Ruth4Truth]

Really strange, OP. Sorry you've had to deal with a lot. But ya know, you might have a career as a writer. Seriously, you write engagingly. I bet there's a market for your stories. "Adventures in Diversity". The time has come for this. If not a book, maybe underground comixx. Beat all your frustration out onto the page.

How's the rest of your week going?

[cis_love]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Really strange, OP. Sorry you've had to deal with a lot. But ya know, you might have a career as a writer. Seriously, you write engagingly. I bet there's a market for your stories. "Adventures in Diversity". The time has come for this. If not a book, maybe underground comixx. Beat all your frustration out onto the page.

How's the rest of your week going?

lol, that's the irony. i have a MA in English, have taught English and writing for 10 years. and this RB ASSumes English is not my first language b/c of how I look. I usually don't let these things get to me but I was so taken aback by what she said.

[RVD90277]

OP, are you ethnically something other than white, anglo-saxon, Jewish, Irish, etc.?

I grew up being asked questions like this as well as "Where are you from?" a lot. Of course if I say that I'm from Detroit, they say "no, I mean where are you really from?" etc.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by cis_love

lol, that's the irony. i have a MA in English, have taught English and writing for 10 years. and this RB ASSumes English is not my first language b/c of how I look. I usually don't let these things get to me but I was so taken aback by what she said.

Gawd, that's bad! So, are you an editor of some kind of publications now, or college faculty? Congrats on your new job, btw.

[cis_love]

Originally Posted by RVD90277

OP, are you ethnically something other than white, anglo-saxon, Jewish, Irish, etc.?

I grew up being asked questions like this as well as "Where are you from?" a lot. Of course if I say that I'm from Detroit, they say "no, I mean where are you really from?" etc.

Yup. And that was the exact tone of the convo today. "No, really, what language is your TRUE language CIS_Love?"

ENGLISH, RB!!

[RVD90277]

I know that this isn't going to help the situation but giving the RB the benefit of doubt, she was probably more ignorant than racist.

My friend and I started a company back in the 2000s so I dealt with a lot of company stuff outside of my regular job description. We ran into financial problems towards the end of the company (closed down in 2009) so we had to shut down our New York office. There were only around 10 employees there but we had to tell them that the office was shutting down and they were all out of a job, etc. We were on a conference call with our corporate attorney (a guy who we used for all of our legal paperwork, fundraising documents, and any other general legal assistance needed) and it was amusing because he was being racist (and maybe sexist?) simply out of ignorance. Conversation went something like:

Me: So when we notify the employees on Friday, is there anything else that we need to prepare for going forward in the form of potential lawsuits or legal issues?
Lawyer: Well the only thing I can think of is that you have 2 women working there in executive positions. In addition, one of the women is an oriental woman so she has an even stronger case if they decide to try to sue for discrimination.

And as we discussed this he kept referring to her in various ways saying "well, because she's an oriental...", etc.

I grew up in the 80s and being called oriental wasn't necessarily a bad thing back in the day but in the late 80s and 90s when PC kicked it, it clearly became a term used to reference objects and not people (e.g. oriental rugs is ok but oriental man is not).

I don't think he was being racist (after all, he was saying this to me...an "oriental" guy) but I think it was out of ignorance. I probably should have corrected him but I had more pressing issues on my mind (such as not getting sued by the aforementioned women).

[cis_love]

Originally Posted by RVD90277

I know that this isn't going to help the situation but giving the RB the benefit of doubt, she was probably more ignorant than racist.

My friend and I started a company back in the 2000s so I dealt with a lot of company stuff outside of my regular job description. We ran into financial problems towards the end of the company (closed down in 2009) so we had to shut down our New York office. There were only around 10 employees there but we had to tell them that the office was shutting down and they were all out of a job, etc. We were on a conference call with our corporate attorney (a guy who we used for all of our legal paperwork, fundraising documents, and any other general legal assistance needed) and it was amusing because he was being racist (and maybe sexist?) simply out of ignorance. Conversation went something like:

Me: So when we notify the employees on Friday, is there anything else that we need to prepare for going forward in the form of potential lawsuits or legal issues?
Lawyer: Well the only thing I can think of is that you have 2 women working there in executive positions. In addition, one of the women is an oriental woman so she has an even stronger case if they decide to try to sue for discrimination.

And as we discussed this he kept referring to her in various ways saying "well, because she's an oriental...", etc.

I grew up in the 80s and being called oriental wasn't necessarily a bad thing back in the day but in the late 80s and 90s when PC kicked it, it clearly became a term used to reference objects and not people (e.g. oriental rugs is ok but oriental man is not).

I don't think he was being racist (after all, he was saying this to me...an "oriental" guy) but I think it was out of ignorance. I probably should have corrected him but I had more pressing issues on my mind (such as not getting sued by the aforementioned women).

i get what you're saying. i do agree she's probably ignorant. i guess living in the seattle area i've become oversensitive to this issue as i've had some pretty plain out racist things happen to me here.

[RVD90277]

dude, go to sleep. you have day 2 of your new job coming up (and you didn't sleep much last night because of your anxiety over this first day of work).

i stay up late with nothing to do except post online because i have a new infant to take care of (2 months old now...)

[daily_mist]

Originally Posted by cis_love

just a vent.. i've experienced more subtle and not so subtle racism in my year living in WA than the past 20 years in CA. today was my first day at my new job. i was being introduced around and one lady says to me:
RB (Racist BXXXX)-- so what's your first language?
ME: What do you mean? i only know one language, English
RB: Surely you must know another language. English can't be your first language
ME: Why would you think English is not my first language (with death glare)
RB: (stumbling around) I just thought... well, with your background... (slow fade)
ME: SMH ...

another day in WA, another unpleasant experience with an ignorant RB...

I don't think that counts as racism, sorry. It is just plain, gold old American ignorance.