Accused of racial bias at work by someone, and I feel sick over it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's far easier to chalk it up to racial bias rather than presentation performance.
OP needs to push back because allowing this to be mischaracterized as 'racial bias' does not force the Asian author to address her presentation deficits.
Sometimes we need to recognize that joining a speaker's club or something like toastmasters is necessary to hone and polish our public speaking skills. It sounds like the author needs this.

X100. This!!!! The author is a poor speaker and lashed out (wrongly) at OP. How is she ever going to sell or market her book if she cannot give an interview? It’s part of the job and she may not be up to the task. If I lacked public speaking skills, I’d be unemployed b, and I couldn’t salvage my career by feigning racial bias or misogyny.

The author needs to recognize her deficiencies and not blame others

[Anonymous]

I'm curious to see how their next interview goes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's far easier to chalk it up to racial bias rather than presentation performance.
OP needs to push back because allowing this to be mischaracterized as 'racial bias' does not force the Asian author to address her presentation deficits.
Sometimes we need to recognize that joining a speaker's club or something like toastmasters is necessary to hone and polish our public speaking skills. It sounds like the author needs this.

Except instead of skillfully interviewing her to draw out better responses, OP allowed the man to keep talking over her and then only quoted him without offering alternatives (interviewing them separately, following up for a written quote, etc.). OP mistakenly thought they were co-authors, but then knowingly gave all the spotlight to the man. OP could’ve done the job better. Yes, this woman likely needs media/interview/presentation training. Apparently OP is also lacking in some skills.

[Anonymous]

OP, has anyone interviewed them before? I'd be curious to know how those went.

[Anonymous]

Hindsight 20/20. Maybe I would have talked to each author individually, before/after a joint interview, or instead of a joint interview. I see a dynamic in which a male took up more space, as they tend to do, and a minority woman felt marginalized, as happens. So a joint interview with these two was fraught. OP, I believe you had good intentions, and shouldn't beat yourself up. Living is learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You sound like you suck at your job. You have been doing this for years and when this man was talking over the woman who was soft-spoken it didn't occur to you to specifically speak to her or ask her questions directly? How many memes and books and tweets and so on have been made about men sucking all the air out of the room and taking up all the space and people having to be intentional to help women be heard?

Why can't some women (and men) just speak up, if they want to be heard. Fwiw I get shut down in meetings all the time because often I'm not able to articulate my point at that moment. So I always bring the topic up again at the end of the meeting when the organizer asks "is there anything else we need to discuss?". I can tell many people are annoyed because they want to leave, but I do it anyway, because I want to be heard. Then, if I'm still not able to articulate my point I might send an after-email explaining why I think it's important. People who want to be heard should speak up, even if, especially if, they are being shut down due to race/gender.

[Anonymous]

As a practical matter: Since this is a marketing piece and the university is the client, can't the piece be edited to include more quotes from the Asian woman before it is released? This isn't like journalism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, don’t be the white lady who weaponizes her tears when accused of racial bias. It’s tiresome.

Use this as an opportunity to reflect. Yes, she misheard you. I’m sure you had no ill intent, but intent is separate from impact. Let’s look at the facts— you prioritized the words of a white man over the LEAD AUTHOR of the paper. The lead author who is 1) a woman and 2) a POC. It’s a bad look, OP. As a marketing professional, if this never occurred to you when writing the piece, then that is a pretty huge blind spot. Stop crying and being defensive. Be a grown up and own up to your mistake here and use it as a growth opportunity.

Seriously GTF over yourself. OP is allowed to have emotion if she is falsely accused of something. I am so damn sick of people complaining about white women tears. Society has gone off the deep end when ppl are not allowed to express emotions because they are white. OP was accused of something she did not do. OP was not racist. OP treated two ppl equally and took the more quotable phrase, she didn’t do it because the person was a white male. Ppl of color vs love to claim bias, but clearly the other person was more articulate. She took the more articulate quote since her job was to promote the book.

OP can cry on her own time instead of boo-hooing to the colleague who told her about the bias claim. Give me a break. Would you want to hire a grown-ass woman who cries when she gets feedback?

And the point is that she should NOT have treated them equally. They were not equal. One was a lead author. It's the OP's job to know these things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a practical matter: Since this is a marketing piece and the university is the client, can't the piece be edited to include more quotes from the Asian woman before it is released? This isn't like journalism.

Yep.

[Anonymous]

For the purposes of this hypothetical, let’s make the facts more favorable to OP: well ignore that the author actually complained, ignore that she was a person of color, and we’ll assume they were co-authors. So basic facts are that OP is interviewing two co authors, a man and a woman.

As a professional marketer, OP would have to be living in a box to not know that men overtalk women, and men are given more talk time in professional settings, and that this perpetuates biases and opportunities. And that media coverage of men and women has historically contributed to this problem.

I’m in a professional job that periodically puts me on panels and marketing materials, and I also get calls from the media sometimes. I am very aware that my firms marketing department makes decisions regarding staffing panels or quotes in press releases in part based on gender optics. That is, their decision to put me on a panel is sometimes driven to ensure that the panel is not all men. I also know that the cold calls I get from journalists are sometimes driven by them having a list of ten experts in my field, 8 of whom are men, and they are cognizant that they can’t always call men. Putting just men on the panel, or men in the article, perpetuates that only men are worth listening to. Media has made huge advances in the last ten years to reach out to a more varied list of interviewees instead of the same tired list of five expert males in any subject.

OP is bad at her job is she’s not aware of this. If her end product had the authors quoted anything less than 50/50, she should have noticed that as a problem before publishing. As others have said, OP should have managed the interview better to achieve that end product.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's far easier to chalk it up to racial bias rather than presentation performance.
OP needs to push back because allowing this to be mischaracterized as 'racial bias' does not force the Asian author to address her presentation deficits.
Sometimes we need to recognize that joining a speaker's club or something like toastmasters is necessary to hone and polish our public speaking skills. It sounds like the author needs this.

Except instead of skillfully interviewing her to draw out better responses, OP allowed the man to keep talking over her and then only quoted him without offering alternatives (interviewing them separately, following up for a written quote, etc.). OP mistakenly thought they were co-authors, but then knowingly gave all the spotlight to the man. OP could’ve done the job better. Yes, this woman likely needs media/interview/presentation training. Apparently OP is also lacking in some skills.

But OP is not being accused of lacking interviewing/journalism skills. She is being accused of being a RACIST.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I completely disagree with PP. You should ask to speak to Asian American woman directly. It sounds like she is upset not only with the incorrect statement but how she feels she was treated during the interview. It can be exhausting for soft spoken women of any race that have to compete for space with their louder male colleagues and in this day and age, sophisticated professionals should be able to see that and mitigate it where necessary. That means speaking to the woman as much as speaking to the man regardless of how loud the man is. You need to apologize for that part at least and do better next time.

The problem is with the male colleague who was mansplaining and mantterupting. Not with you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The very broad strokes: I run my own marketing agency (not in DC, but I used to live here and still keep up on the boards).
I've been doing it for 20 years and have a really great reputation that I worked hard to earn. One of my clients is a university who wanted to publicize a research paper by two academics, so I put together a release after interviewing both authors, with the rep from the uni's comm department also on the line. I record all my calls, and this was recorded.

One of the authors, apparently the lead author -- which I didn't know, they were presented to me as co-authors -- was very young, Asian American woman who spoke more softly. The co-author was an older, very articulate white male.

At some point during the call, they began to talk over one another. I said, according to my recorded transcript: "Could one of you talk? I don't want to not hear you."

The call continued on, the story was finalized, but I quoted the man, who talked more, more in the release because he had more quotable phrases.

My longtime colleague who hired me from the uni called me yesterday and was very upset -- not at me, but at the situation, trying to figure out what happened, and said this wouldn't affect *my* relationship with the uni or future work, but that I should know that the younger woman apparently reached out to accuse me of racial bias because she thought I said, quote: "I don't want to hear you."

Now, that is not what I said, and the recording bears that out. I shared the recording with him as well as our correspondence where I gave equal attention and respect to both people.

The one thing I did was quote the man more, but the man was frankly the superior interview. It was not a racial choice. In fact, I had asked the softer woman to speak up to get her to talk more!

I burst into tears with my long time colleague. I have never had this happen before. I know people can be accused of micro aggressions in work environments all the time, but it has not happened to me, and it does not feel good, and I feel mortified. I also worry about my own reputation (although my colleague seems to have my back, and my recording bears out my side.)

DCUM, how would you handle? Do I ask to speak to these people directly? Do I let my client handle it? Will it blow over? I have been up sick, crying upset about this. I work with clients in the religious, disabilities, etc space. I feel mortified that I came off this way. Help? Thank you.

Your work colleague informed you of a situation in which you may have caused an offense and your reaction is to burst into tears while denying any wrongdoing.

Classic. Been seeing this since grade school.

-WOC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's far easier to chalk it up to racial bias rather than presentation performance.
OP needs to push back because allowing this to be mischaracterized as 'racial bias' does not force the Asian author to address her presentation deficits.
Sometimes we need to recognize that joining a speaker's club or something like toastmasters is necessary to hone and polish our public speaking skills. It sounds like the author needs this.

Except instead of skillfully interviewing her to draw out better responses, OP allowed the man to keep talking over her and then only quoted him without offering alternatives (interviewing them separately, following up for a written quote, etc.). OP mistakenly thought they were co-authors, but then knowingly gave all the spotlight to the man. OP could’ve done the job better. Yes, this woman likely needs media/interview/presentation training. Apparently OP is also lacking in some skills.

But OP is not being accused of lacking interviewing/journalism skills. She is being accused of being a RACIST.

While I don't think OP is a racist by any stretch, I do think she lacks diversity awareness that is necessary for her job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's far easier to chalk it up to racial bias rather than presentation performance.
OP needs to push back because allowing this to be mischaracterized as 'racial bias' does not force the Asian author to address her presentation deficits.
Sometimes we need to recognize that joining a speaker's club or something like toastmasters is necessary to hone and polish our public speaking skills. It sounds like the author needs this.

Except instead of skillfully interviewing her to draw out better responses, OP allowed the man to keep talking over her and then only quoted him without offering alternatives (interviewing them separately, following up for a written quote, etc.). OP mistakenly thought they were co-authors, but then knowingly gave all the spotlight to the man. OP could’ve done the job better. Yes, this woman likely needs media/interview/presentation training. Apparently OP is also lacking in some skills.

But OP is not being accused of lacking interviewing/journalism skills. She is being accused of being a RACIST.

While I don't think OP is a racist by any stretch, I do think she lacks diversity awareness that is necessary for her job.

This. OP needs to learn the accepted vernacular to denconflict these situations that are going to frequently spring up in a university setting. Stay calm, say you hear them, and will learn. Rinse, repeat.