Question for Whites about racism

[Anonymous]

Yes, one or two can poison an organization. Their relatively public racism (you know of it) will color all actions. That their bosses allow them to remain in positions of power means they condone the racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. WRT the question about lawsuits, both individuals thought (rightly) that they had more to lose professionally than gain financially.
I put the question to Whites because I have a sense that there is a need to have PROOF that the person's racial opinions DIRECTLY caused the job loss, or under-performance. I am certain that most minorities (and women) would know how difficult working with such racists (sexists) can be.

? I think you need to provide a lot more information than you're in a position to, only having a secondhand account, in order to get a definitive answer.

If it helps, I've been in workplace situations where my supervisors ill treated me because of my nationality, and, I didn't perform at my best in those situations. -Partly because they provided me with unsafe conditions that affected my health. Still, my performance went above and beyond expectations because I pushed myself to excel, so there were no underperformance issues. I underperformed in relation to what I could have done. And, in terms of carryover, these supervisors' attitudes toward me had a negative impact on other people in the workplace who were of the same nationality as the supervisors. There was a lot of turmoil in the workplace. My supervisors' treatment of me made many people uncomfortable, but there were also many other problems with their supervisory style that made people unhappy.

[Anonymous]

If it's such a simple question OP, why don't you answer it yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I put the question to Whites because I have a sense that there is a need to have PROOF that the person's racial opinions DIRECTLY caused the job loss, or under-performance. I am certain that most minorities (and women) would know how difficult working with such racists (sexists) can be.

I think there's a (big generalization) typical sense that capital-R Racism is when someone says "I am firing that person because they are Black." And often less of an understanding of structural racism, or of ways that prejudices and discrimination are "in the water" if you will. A sense that being neutral and not-acting is an anti-racist position, where sometimes you have to actively fight against underlying racism to level the playing field, and by doing nothing, you are reinforcing the status quo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometime ago a friend mentioned that the head of a group of professionals was a very racist man, as he confided in her and had some outbursts that labeled him as such. Later, that man ended up firing two African Americans on his staff and admitted that he liked one Asian man because he "knew his place". At that time, the woman he confided in said that the discharge of the two individuals had nothing to do with race, but the circumstances that surrounded their cases had a lot to do with professional failure. She by the way was a very open nice person, but professionally incompetent.

Here is my question: If an organization or corporation has one or two extremely racist individuals, can those people poison the environment to the point that the minorities can not function at their best?
Simple question.

I can not figure out why this woman could not step back and look at the big picture, but rather details about who did what...thus according to her, it was not about race.

Umm it could be that it had nothing to do with race but "place" meaning subordinate worker in terms of disrepecting or disobeying tasks or orders from the boss.

[Anonymous]

As an anti-racist white woman, I would have a really hard time working for someone I knew to be racist. I would have a hard time getting past that aspect of their personality, even if it was not really related to the job. At the very least, it would be difficult if not impossible for me to have any kind of professional or personal respect for them, if I knew this about them.

I have no problem working with people I have ideological differences of opinion with, but this would cross the line, for me.

I agree that people of color get terminated for reasons unrelated to their race. If this happened in my company with a supervisor who had made racist remarks in the past, though, I would have a really hard time believing that race was not a factor in termination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As an anti-racist white woman, I would have a really hard time working for someone I knew to be racist. I would have a hard time getting past that aspect of their personality, even if it was not really related to the job. At the very least, it would be difficult if not impossible for me to have any kind of professional or personal respect for them, if I knew this about them.

I have no problem working with people I have ideological differences of opinion with, but this would cross the line, for me.

I agree that people of color get terminated for reasons unrelated to their race. If this happened in my company with a supervisor who had made racist remarks in the past, though, I would have a really hard time believing that race was not a factor in termination.

Well said. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

You are doomed when the boss hates you for whatever reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Umm it could be that it had nothing to do with race but "place" meaning subordinate worker in terms of disrepecting or disobeying tasks or orders from the boss.

That is 'place', is it not?

[Anonymous]

The atmosphere can pervade the office environment and sabotage or undermine minorities. The atmosphere could also manifest itself in ways that shape those employees' prospects, such as casual lunches with the boss, inclusion in important water-cooler discussions about work, ways of signaling in front of clients an employee's [race-based] unimportance, and so forth.

[Anonymous]

OP again, one of the people fired saw the writing on the wall and had another job ready when he was fired. He actually made them take the discharge back so he could quit since it was just a matter of hours he needed to sign the new contract and deliver it. The other one was stunned and very angry, lashing out at everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As an anti-racist white woman, I would have a really hard time working for someone I knew to be racist. I would have a hard time getting past that aspect of their personality, even if it was not really related to the job. At the very least, it would be difficult if not impossible for me to have any kind of professional or personal respect for them, if I knew this about them.

I have no problem working with people I have ideological differences of opinion with, but this would cross the line, for me.

I agree that people of color get terminated for reasons unrelated to their race. If this happened in my company with a supervisor who had made racist remarks in the past, though, I would have a really hard time believing that race was not a factor in termination.

Well said. Thank you.

You're welcome. My further point was that regarding the OP's question, I would have a hard time with a work environment where things like this happened. It would certainly not be the only or even the deciding factor in whether I was at my best in a job, but it would definitely have an impact on my morale, even as a white person. Racism is toxic and its toxicity is not limited to people of color.