I accidentally said "racist" things at work

Good lord...

::insert Godfather "YOU CAN ACT LIKE A MAN!!!.gif::

That has to be one of the most self flagellating things I've ever read.
 
Fedorgasm said:
So I have this one employee that works from home and she interacts with clients over the phone.

In a meeting with several managers present, her manager mentioned to me that when he's on the phone with her she has this chirp sound every few seconds, it's her smoke alarm chirping because it needs a new battery. He said he told her to get fixed a while ago because it's unprofessional for our clients to hear that, and she hasn't fixed it yet.

So I laughed, and then went on a rant where I made several jokes about how crazy you have to be in order to live with that chirping sound 24/7. Got several laughs from the group. Her manager said he'd deal with her and then we ended the call.

Fast forward 1 week and I see a meme online about how black people don't change their smoke alarm batteries. I do some googling and discover that this is an entire stereotype that I never knew about. Apparently there are tons of memes and jokes about black people and smoke alarm chirping.

Now I'm horrified as I recall this meeting, because the employee and her manager are both black. And I was talking about how only crazy people could live with this chirping sound. Someone in that meeting could cry foul and claim that I was calling black people crazy or something.

For those that don't work in a corporate environment you wouldn't understand. These are the eggshells that we have to walk on in big companies. Nobody really buys this shit, but some do weaponize it to get their enemies in trouble.

Haven't gotten a call from HR yet though, so wish me luck.
Click to expand...

I was gonna say, just show HR your sherdog display pic and join date. But then I took a second look. No sir, you are f'd
 
Fedorgasm said:
So I have this one employee that works from home and she interacts with clients over the phone.

In a meeting with several managers present, her manager mentioned to me that when he's on the phone with her she has this chirp sound every few seconds, it's her smoke alarm chirping because it needs a new battery. He said he told her to get fixed a while ago because it's unprofessional for our clients to hear that, and she hasn't fixed it yet.

So I laughed, and then went on a rant where I made several jokes about how crazy you have to be in order to live with that chirping sound 24/7. Got several laughs from the group. Her manager said he'd deal with her and then we ended the call.

Fast forward 1 week and I see a meme online about how black people don't change their smoke alarm batteries. I do some googling and discover that this is an entire stereotype that I never knew about. Apparently there are tons of memes and jokes about black people and smoke alarm chirping.

Now I'm horrified as I recall this meeting, because the employee and her manager are both black. And I was talking about how only crazy people could live with this chirping sound. Someone in that meeting could cry foul and claim that I was calling black people crazy or something.

For those that don't work in a corporate environment you wouldn't understand. These are the eggshells that we have to walk on in big companies. Nobody really buys this shit, but some do weaponize it to get their enemies in trouble.

Haven't gotten a call from HR yet though, so wish me luck.
Click to expand...
As a black man your are right but they’re times where racism is at play and this is not one of them.
 
So ......... did ya don the hood right outta school? ....... David Duke would be proud of that display sir

:(

Ummmm brah you did nothing wrong dummy. You gotta be nuts to out up with that 24/7 thata not racist LOL thats a FACT.
 
Fedorgasm said:
So I have this one employee that works from home and she interacts with clients over the phone.

In a meeting with several managers present, her manager mentioned to me that when he's on the phone with her she has this chirp sound every few seconds, it's her smoke alarm chirping because it needs a new battery. He said he told her to get fixed a while ago because it's unprofessional for our clients to hear that, and she hasn't fixed it yet.

So I laughed, and then went on a rant where I made several jokes about how crazy you have to be in order to live with that chirping sound 24/7. Got several laughs from the group. Her manager said he'd deal with her and then we ended the call.

Fast forward 1 week and I see a meme online about how black people don't change their smoke alarm batteries. I do some googling and discover that this is an entire stereotype that I never knew about. Apparently there are tons of memes and jokes about black people and smoke alarm chirping.

Now I'm horrified as I recall this meeting, because the employee and her manager are both black. And I was talking about how only crazy people could live with this chirping sound. Someone in that meeting could cry foul and claim that I was calling black people crazy or something.

For those that don't work in a corporate environment you wouldn't understand. These are the eggshells that we have to walk on in big companies. Nobody really buys this shit, but some do weaponize it to get their enemies in trouble.

Haven't gotten a call from HR yet though, so wish me luck.
Click to expand...

I was vaguely aware of this relatively new stereotype but always understood it as being because of smoking weed indoors.

When the detectors sense smoke but not enough to go off fully they do the chirp every 10-30 seconds as a warning.

The laziness thing doesn't make any sense to me.

Anyway, yeah, pretty likely your colleague is smoking weed at home all the time. Good luck with that!

TeTe said:
Pepper your angus, you gonna get cancelled
Click to expand...
Oldie but a goodie hahah!
 
You're not allowed to point things out sherbrah. This flimsy bullshit society would collapse if everyone was honest and did that.
 
There's only one way out of this now.

4ef376e1-eafe-48e8-85b6-cd55452c006a_text.gif
 
Agreed on corporate rigidity. Even if you say something and it seems fine at the time, you never know when you'll get pinged by HR.

I am not real friends with any co-workers, and will never say anything controversial to any of them.. ever. Just be friendly and be as generic as hell.

The corporate world is wild.. its like you are all working towards the same goal, yet all competing with each other at the same time.. and you cannot offend ANYONE. It's nuts and I definitely do not recommend it lol
 
You didn't say anything racist and it was already told to change it
 
How much does intent factor into the judgement? I say racially insensitive shit all the time because I know I'm not racist, or I'm equally racist toward everyone but I don't think race is a factor in most things, or it doesn't have to be anyway...

And your scenario isn't remotely racist. It's very true a large number of blacks seem to not hear or not care or not know how to deal with low batteries in smoke alarms.
 
Fedorgasm said:
So I have this one employee that works from home and she interacts with clients over the phone.

In a meeting with several managers present, her manager mentioned to me that when he's on the phone with her she has this chirp sound every few seconds, it's her smoke alarm chirping because it needs a new battery. He said he told her to get fixed a while ago because it's unprofessional for our clients to hear that, and she hasn't fixed it yet.

So I laughed, and then went on a rant where I made several jokes about how crazy you have to be in order to live with that chirping sound 24/7. Got several laughs from the group. Her manager said he'd deal with her and then we ended the call.

Fast forward 1 week and I see a meme online about how black people don't change their smoke alarm batteries. I do some googling and discover that this is an entire stereotype that I never knew about. Apparently there are tons of memes and jokes about black people and smoke alarm chirping.

Now I'm horrified as I recall this meeting, because the employee and her manager are both black. And I was talking about how only crazy people could live with this chirping sound. Someone in that meeting could cry foul and claim that I was calling black people crazy or something.

For those that don't work in a corporate environment you wouldn't understand. These are the eggshells that we have to walk on in big companies. Nobody really buys this shit, but some do weaponize it to get their enemies in trouble.

Haven't gotten a call from HR yet though, so wish me luck.
Click to expand...
For this reason, at work, I stopped saying jokes that in anyway could be about people over ten years ago.
 
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