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the scene: a major multinational corporation
every month a group of 15 coworkers has an event and celebrates something happening
for February, the two people who put everything together decide it will be recognizing Black History Month
the group includes one black person who has never been interested in the monthly event planning
which of the following statements do you agree with? (when answering, imagine that your answer will have a direct impact on your future employment.)
A) it is racist to get the black person's input
B) It is racist not to get the black person's input
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I would say both conditions could be racist or not, depending on how they are actually implemented. But personally, I'd question at the outset whether Black History Month is an appropriate thing to celebrate with this group in the first place--are the celebrations normally historic in nature? If 11 months out of the year we're celebrating someone's birthday, and then February's celebration suddenly swerves into Black History Month, I would say that comes off as bizarrely pandering in the first place. I'm trying hard to imagine what other things they could be celebrating that would be equivalent to Black History Month, and I'm drawing a blank. So my guess is the theme is poorly chosen, and the whole thing is going to be a disaster no matter what.
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More thoughts: while the original intention of the holiday was indeed to celebrate, a modern understanding of Black History as a concept must involve the recognition of some harsh realities about our country. It is more of a commemoration, at this point--so unless the group is also going to, for example, have a 9/11 "celebration" for their September meeting, they should really rethink this whole plan.
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Clodfobble has survived UT's Kobayashi Maru.
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Ironically, I'm watching a new show in the standard "people are involuntarily forced to fight for their lives against each other" genre, and they straight up killed people you thought were going to be main characters in episode freaking three. In Japanese cinema, apparently, sometimes they don't figure out a clever plan to beat the system.
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indeed i did not expect "celebrating black history month is the racist act" as a possible answer. i don't know what the group did in previous months
we might now rewrite the Kobayashi Maru question as...
a) was it racist to celebrate Black History Month
or b) was it racist to not celebrate Black History Month
...with the preceding condition remaining, that your answer will have a direct impact on your future employment
but that question would not describe a real-world situation just experienced by J
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Did J survive her version of the Kobayashi Maru question?
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ok because i've given up part of the game i have to turn over all the cards, it is J's team described
J is wildly pro DEI, i married her anyway, they regularly have diversity things going on and she is happily part of it. she is always part of the monthly planning because she's like that too. i married her anyway.
one of her other team members suggested that the black person ("bp" hereafter) should be consulted about the event -- and maybe it was racist not to! bp agreed to a call, and J and bp had a pleasant 15 minute conversation, in which many ideas were discussed
the next day they hauled J out to a meeting with two supervisors
bp had thought about it overnight and became angry
the presense of a racial issue made it corporate, not just a little in-group quibble
in the meeting, bp called it disgusting and revolting
J was in tears for two days, anguished at the whole thing and in fear of her possible future. she has survived, and continues to be employed, but with a mark against her in her corporate world
real diversity answer to the original question: there is no winning answer. if a person of diversity is offended, their offense has to be taken seriously and considered wrong, no matter what. this was a central point in my diversity training as well
the real world consequences: anything with any hint of diversity is a minefield you wander into at your own peril
in the future, of course, the idea of commemorating Black History Month, or anything connected to race at all, will be avoided by anyone in J's office with any sense of corporate self-preservation.
the woke outcome and the racist outcome is i-fuckin'-dentical
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play." - the computer in War Games, describing both tic-tac-toe and global thermonuclear war
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Wow. No good deed. So that's got to have destroyed any connection J and bp had. Assuming they had any.
I suspect that this will blow over in time for J and the mark will not linger in the eyes of others. She'll remember it though.
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Dude, that sucks. J's situation is fucked up in a number of ways, and I don't think anyone with good intentions should be thrown under the bus like that. The one thing I will say is I bet that, behind closed doors, bp has fucked themselves in the corporate world far harder than J has. The company will find an excuse to fire bp within the year--not too soon, because they can't, but I'd bet money it will happen.
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What's woke?
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you can call it whatever you like, but Please Just Fucking Tell Me What Term I Am Allowed to Use for the Sweeping Social and Political Changes You Demand
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conscience?
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haha okay
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Person A: my thesis is that Person B believes a bad thing, termed smoot, to be a good thing
and here's proof-- *describes a patently bad thing* ..so you see? smoot is bad!
Person B: I agree, that thing is bad
Person A: so why are you calling BAD things smoot?!
Person B: I'm not.. you are
Person A: So What Single Word Do I Use To Describe All Bad Things That I Don't Like??
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i bet you think this post is about you
don't you
don't you
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group
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Clod can you start a new section of the board called PAPP, for passive aggressive puzzle posts? thanks
this can be the first post in it
f and i will be the only users in it, but at least the rest of you can avoid our shit
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cross-post to BARF, "Boomer's Angsty Rant Fetish"
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Clodfobble wrote:
But personally, I'd question at the outset whether Black History Month is an appropriate thing to celebrate with this group in the first place--are the celebrations normally historic in nature? If 11 months out of the year we're celebrating someone's birthday, and then February's celebration suddenly swerves into Black History Month, I would say that comes off as bizarrely pandering in the first place.
for completeness, I asked J more about this, and it turns out the monthly things were not events or celebrations, but planned discussions about diversity
J was an active participant in this and promoted the discussions. J is a dedicated liberal and is very much in favor of diversity
although the supervisor meeting was supposed to be kept secret, it's clear to J that it wasn't and there have been a few asides from other people in her group that suggested they heard about it
the mines are laid in the allied's fields, not the enemy's. it's a trap.
Last edited by Undertoad (2/15/2023 10:36 am)
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This is so confusing. Planned discussions about diversity that bp signed up for, knowing that they were planned discussions about diversity. And its Black History Month, so OF COURSE that will be a topic. I simply don't get it. How could J possibly come out of the bp conversation thinking it went well, but bp is offended in hindsight? It literally makes no sense to me.
Is J going to quit the group, or will she continue? If it's not a safe space to discuss things, and people are being dragged into HR when they have made a good faith effort to make a connection and discuss difficult issues, it seems like the group is going to have a really hard time going forward.
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J backed out of being the point person for this one, even though that too was awkward. lIke, she volunteered to do it, but then stopped doing it, and she isn't supposed to talk about why.
she won't be point person in the future, but will continue to participate.
offense is a funny thing. bp may have been offended during the call, but didn't want to display it. we make those kinds of choices all the time. or maybe she wanted to throw J under the bus but waited for supervisory help so it would be a bigger bus.
her offense doesn't seem reasonable, but there are things we can't see, both personal and identity things. there are also many things that are reasonably offensive to one person, yet aren't offensive at all to another.
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Might also not be about J at all, might just be the coworker setting up for a lawsuit against the company at large. The whole thing is baffling and I don't blame J for feeling attacked and confused.
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yeah, one other bit - post-coof, the company policy is, you have to work in office half your days, but bp has never come in. she has given changing reasons as to why. flimsy reasons at first, then changed to "painful knee"
and it's like, is this related, positively or negatively? does she not come in because the office is racist? Is she playing a racist office card in order to stay at home but still be employed? Or is it entirely unrelated?
and, do people with arthritis get to stay home? i need to know
Last edited by Undertoad (2/15/2023 2:44 pm)