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To what degree...a PC discussion
ryuprecht
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I spent the first part of my work morning putting together Christmas gifts and cards for my employees. I bought bags of chocolates (always a favorite around here) and individually inscribed a witticism into a Christmas card for each, taking care to personalize them. I then took the leftover cards and gave them to my counterpart for her to do with her employees. Since our employees work closely together, we wanted to make sure that they all received similar cards and gifts to avoid discussions about who got what and how much was spent.
To my shock, she let me know that my Christmas cards were inappropriate. The cards were simple, with a B&W photo of a snowman on front, and inside it said "...dreaming of a white Christmas." Lo and behold though, she refused to use the cards because we have black and hispanic employees who would be offended by the use of the term "white Christmas."
So the discussion starts, and now several people are involved in the appropriateness (or lack thereof) of using the term white in this way.
So my question to the group is, to what degree does one need to be careful of offense like this? Is it presumptive to assume mal intent by receiving a card like this? To be honest, I started to doubt my initial conviction that she was blowing it out of proportion. At lunch I will be going down the street to replace the 5 cards in question just to be sure, but...well...wow.
To my shock, she let me know that my Christmas cards were inappropriate. The cards were simple, with a B&W photo of a snowman on front, and inside it said "...dreaming of a white Christmas." Lo and behold though, she refused to use the cards because we have black and hispanic employees who would be offended by the use of the term "white Christmas."
So the discussion starts, and now several people are involved in the appropriateness (or lack thereof) of using the term white in this way.
So my question to the group is, to what degree does one need to be careful of offense like this? Is it presumptive to assume mal intent by receiving a card like this? To be honest, I started to doubt my initial conviction that she was blowing it out of proportion. At lunch I will be going down the street to replace the 5 cards in question just to be sure, but...well...wow.
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I think there are definitely ways that it could be part of a hostile work environment. For instance, if all the minority employees got the white christmas cards, and no one else did. However, I don't think that as it stands it sounds offensive, precisely because that's about as bland as christmas cards come.
Wii Code: 1040-1320-0724-3613 :!!:
Some things other than skin are white.
I say damn the man, you are being nice and spreading holiday cheer. Nobody should be offended by your cards.
Unless you are a closet white supremacist.
A lot of people would find this earth-shattering news. It's actually pretty sad, when people go too far with political correctness and start just messing things up.
Then again, you are in California and people on both sides of the political divide are kind of crazy out there.
Still though, this is a great thread for an excuse to post this:
Nope, nothing of the sort. It's weird because she's white but married to a black man and seems to take issue on his behalf sometimes.
Oh, true enough. It gets pretty scary when someone actually means it though.
I get irritated at people who nitpick over what's offensive to a group that they don't belong to. I mean, it's one thing if it's something obviously offensive like a swastika on a card or something, but this kind of stuff is bullshit.
Yeah, it's in situations like this, I start publicly making snide and sarcastic remarks about how incredibly stupid people like this are. But it's okay because they're not racist comments.
The snowman didn't happen to have a slightly pointy head or anything, did it?
Whatever. There's nothing wrong with being careful to avoid offending someone. But just like everything else, people can be stupid about it.
Also, run on sentences.
Anyway, the few people on TV might be the loudest examples, but in my experience the people most likely to take offense are white, middle class, and haven't faced any significant discrimination in their lives. Hang on, I'm getting to the point here...
ryuprecht, I'd suspect the only people who would be angered by the white Christmas would be white. The people who are "supposed to be" offended most likely won't give a shit.
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
And isn't it a whole new and exciting form of racism to try and take over the fight against racism and tell black people what they should and shouldn't be offended by?
Why not ask someone in your office who's black or Hispanic? In the very few occasions this kind of thing has come up in my life, I've just asked someone who is part of that minority.
Give her a candy cane with written instructions on how to shove it up her anus. I have no idea where this tightassed attitude came from but I don't think it being around before 1995.
*You shouldn't actually do this.
Seriously though, crying racism at every possible thing even though it is clearly not, makes cases of real racism receive less attention. I live near detroit, and I hear ridiculous claims of racism on the news quite frequently. For instance, one family of a black man claimed it was racism when a cop shot a guy who was high on drugs and shooting at him.
Eh, that's nothing compare to the loud drone of "RESIST THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS!" coming from all sides for the past few years.
There are generally ways to use anything in a hostile fashion, but this hardly would be the OPs intent I would assume.
There is sadly, for every person with legitimate issue with society, a smaller subset of people who generally go looking for things to be offended about because that's just how you make people pay attention to you (and we've had several shoot through this forum on occasion).
Are you serious? Anyone with half a brain would realize that a cop will shoot back no matter what color the druggies' skin is.
I don't know about people in general, but with me and some people I know, if something is continuously flaunted in TV and other media, it loses its effect. It happened with 9/11, and the Tsunami. The media just ground it in the viewers face day after day, week after week, and eventually I was so sick of it, that I didn't want to hear anything to do with them. I just started to tune them out. I'd imagine the same would happen with everybody going crazy over perceived racism. Overuse tends to make things lose their impact.
My card from this year. It was well received.
Although how many of us have seen actually white people (people who would be nicknamed "fff")? Apart from Michael Jackson (which is confusing on so many levels).