So my girlfriend just called from work upset.

Urdig

Apparently while she was at lunch she went into the break room to get something out of the snack machine.  She accidentally got a candybar with coconut in it.  The girl hates coconut; so she told an associate in the room that she's known the past 3 years or so that he could have it, and proceeds to walk out of the room.  Then female associate that was also in the room stops her and cusses her for interupting her conversation with another gentleman.  My girl apologizes, and tells her that she didn't mean to.

As my girlfriend turns to leave again a comment was made to the associate that my girl has known for some time, a comment in regard to the color of my girls skin. 

I told her to go to someone and let them know what happend, but she's upset and thinks that she would be causing trouble if she did.

Crap like that really breaks my heart people.  There is no reason for anyone to bring such a view to work, let alone out of thier house.  If you feel that way about another person then keep it to your damn self.  We're all of the same species here and in this day and age it is just uncalled for.

It's like that stupid Akon thread cursed me.

Here's the question. 

Does a person deserve to lose thier job for making a comment about co-workers skin color?

Edit: I forget to give a third option.  I don't know, because I don't know.  That's a hard call to make.  A part of me says the person should be fired, but another part says that things should be forgiven and you should rise above such things and set an example that such behavior won't guide your actions.

 

kel11

Tell her to sleep on it and see if she feels the same the next day. 

Urdig

Originally posted by kel11

Tell her to sleep on it and see if she feels the same the next day. 

Very sound advice.  I'll tell her just that.

Tamalan

Sorry to hear that Urdig, thats a crappy situation. If the associate she has known will back her up on the insult the woman made, she should drag that woman in front of her superior. If your girlfriend has an employment contract to hand, have a look through it, it should have some policy or guidelines on how to progress with disciplining the woman who racially insulted her.

Your girlfriend has a right not to have to put up with bigoted crap like that in the workplace, and if possible she should take it as far as she can to make sure it doesnt happen to her or anyone else.

MuffinMan

Definately a dick move on the part of the co-worker, I'd tell your girl to do two things.



A.) Brush her shoulder off

B.) Slap that racist ******

Dekron

Originally posted by Urdig

Does a person deserve to lose thier job for making a comment about co-workers skin color?

No. Although they are racist bastards, it is still freedom of speech.



Also, she needs not let it bother her - if she does, then they person stating the comment "wins". Shrug it off. Who is this person anyways to let something so trivial affect her well-being?

Rikimaru_X

I would have to say for your girl to brush her sholulders off and not let the comment about her skin color bother her. If it ever comes up again then she should tell the higher people. Things like that should never bother a person unless it's to a serious extent. Of course it's rude though.

Urdig

What really bothers me is that my girls 23 and never had to deal with sort of thing before, she's never experienced it first hand, and I really don't know how to console here on such a thing.  She's called twice now. 

I really wish it had been me that it had happened to, and not her.  I've already been there and done that for a good part of my life, and my skins become a little tougher because of it. 

I would have to fire the woman.  After thinking about it, I simply would not want that element under my employee.  The situation in wich it happened is just so senceless that I couldn't trust such a person to not step out of bounds again.

They were on opposite sides of the room accourding to my girl, and the boy she gave the candy bar to wasn't even talking to the woman.  It was beyond uncalled for, and sounds like a deliberate attack to me.

Publish6246

Sounds like your G/F needs to grow some balls and give as much as she got back tbh...

baff

Finding a conducive office enviroment to work in is very important. Being in an uncomfortable enviroment for so many hours of your life is soul destroying.

Should your girlfriend continue to find her job upsetting, she should consider finding a new office or finding a way to remove those that upset her from that office. Whichever is more practical.

Urdig

Originally posted by Publish6246

Sounds like your G/F needs to grow some balls and give as much as she got back tbh...

You're making me feel like an old man here.

If I was still 19 I might agree with you, but at 30, and having learned restraint, it's not the best aproach when you have bills to pay.

And for my own sake, I really hope that she NEVER grows some balls.  I love her to death, but I don't think I could be that open minded.

ntcrawler

"Does a person deserve to lose thier job for making a comment about co-workers skin color?"



For that question I have to say it totally depends on the comment. I think it is ok to joke about ones skin color and mannerisms as long as it is not hateful and in bad tastes.



In your girlfriends case I would have to say she should have that bitch fired.

porgie

If this is the first time this has happened to her then she should think about that.  I'm white and I've had tons of racist comments made towards me.  They're just stupid people. 



Why let them bother you?  Unless it's one of her superiors I would simply feel sorry for them and hope they grow up someday so they can enjoy life.  They're the one suffering to make a comment like that.  Imagine all the cool people they will never get to know because they rate people by the amount of pigment in their skin. 

Aseenus

Originally posted by kel11

Tell her to sleep on it and see if she feels the same the next day. 

yeah his right, usually im angry as hell one day then i sleep and wake up and im fine the next

WantsumBier

 

If it is a first time that it has happened, I think your GF should approach her co-worker and tell her that those types of comments are uncalled for and offensive.  This will put that person on notice and will give your GF more credibility if she wants to pursue the matter with management.

 

Heck, maybe the comment was made in jest and your GF misunderstood. Talking to her co-worker might clear it up.

Ecranomical

your girlfriend should talk to her supervisor, or HR department or w/e, and explain wat has happened. I live in Canada, not sure if u live in the states or where, but i believe there are some laws agianst racisim, so I think that person who made those comments deserves to be fired. Of course assuming that the comments where hateful in some nature.

Ritto

Originally posted by WantsumBier

 
If it is a first time that it has happened, I think your GF should approach her co-worker and tell her that those types of comments are uncalled for and offensive.  This will put that person on notice and will give your GF more credibility if she wants to pursue the matter with management.
 
Heck, maybe the comment was made in jest and your GF misunderstood. Talking to her co-worker might clear it up.

alough, i don't believe that racism is acceptable even in jest.

However, what did she say (it may depend)

Theutus

If it's serious enough to affect her work it's serious enough to report. Advice from a manager for a major corp. Have her write an account of what happened while it's fresh in her mind. Have her ask the witness to do likewise. Date it and sign it. If this ever occurs again write another statement, bring copies of said statements to management, if nothing happens bring statements to her HR dept.



If it is a single event, I would not have someone fired. There's no telling what is going on in the other womans personal life to make her lash out like she did... not that it's ever ok to do so in a professional setting. Give her a chance to apologize to your GF.

8hammer8

Originally posted by Aseenus

Originally posted by kel11

Tell her to sleep on it and see if she feels the same the next day. 

yeah his right, usually im angry as hell one day then i sleep and wake up and im fine the next

Unfortunately sleep does not cure other people's ignorance.  While she may be able to "sleep off" her initial anger everytime she see's this person it will raise the same issue up whether she is thinking about it or not. 

Freedom of speech can only be carried so far...sexual harassment lawsuits FTL!!  People have the freedom to say whatever they want, but others have the right to workplace free from harassment.  I have the right to say, "Damn nice rack!!" But is she feels like it, I can get my ass sued for sexual harassment.  Lets see Freedom of Speech save my job...

I would tell your girl to raise the issue to her superiors and let them handle it as they feel is best.  If the results do not satisfy her (results, not actions) then she needs to make some tough decisions.  If the managements actions don't satisfy her, then her decision to leave should be a pretty easy one.

Good luck taking care of your woman...

 

RainStar

It's bad enough that stuff like this is still an issue but to have it come up over a candybar is insane.

I vote the person should be fired.

Coldmeat

Some people have a pretty fucked up view of what constitutes freedom of speech.

Out on public property, you can say whatever the hell you want, though you still run the risk of getting your ask kicked. The minute you're on private property, you can still say whatever you want, but the owners have the right to throw your dumb ass out, and you'll still get your ass kicked to boot.

If you have any doubts, go to work, stand up and start shouting some swear words, racial insults, sexual comments, etc. See how long it takes for them to put your ass in the unemployment line. Call a lawyer, and tell them you were unfairly fired for exercising your right to free speech. See how fast they can hang up on you.

To the OP: Simply put, your girlfriend needs to bring the incident to the attention of her manager, and should her manager do nothing, she needs to go to HR, and file a harassment complaint. I know of no company that doesn't have a No Harassment/No Discrimination policy in place, and enforce it very strongly. Because if they let it slide, they put themselves at risk of being sued right out of business.

ACE777

Trying to get the other person fired without actually talking to her about it first is rather weak.  I say she should go talk to the other woman, and let it go after that.  Getting the woman fired would just alienate her from all the other coworkers as well. Especially over such a small thing as a verbal insult.

Urdig

My girl got home a bit ago.

The woman needs to be fired.  After my girl left the room a couple people informed her that the woman went on quite a rant about her.  The woman apparently has quite an opinion of people that don't look like her.  It's a shame because nothing the woman had to say had anything to do with my girl as an individual, just the color of her skin.  She also seemed to think that because all the other people in the room were of the same color as herself that it was ok to spew out a bunch of racist hate.

She went to one of her bosses after one of the guys in the room told her he would be a witness to what the woman said.  A report was written and they are going to deal with it tomorrow when the big guy is in.

This is at a retail chain and the woman works at the customer service desk; if she's willing to be that open about her beliefs with the people she has to deal with on a daily basis, then I can't imagine what she might say to someone she may only see once in her life. 

I'm a firm believer that if you can't treat your coworkers with respect, then you're not going treat your customers with the respect they deserve either. 

EggFtegg

Well, that sounds a lot worse than just an inappropriate comment that slipped out. I'd agree that's the right decision then. Hopefully, this will be a lesson well learned.

0k21

Get her fired, racists like that should be thrown in jail for month or two in my opinion just so they learn their lesson, I hope things work out for your girlfriend, no one deserves to be treated like that, I remember when I got called an Irish Bastard when I was young and I'm only half-irish.... I still get ticked off that I never swung a punch at the guy for it so it's best if you get her to dish out the punishment while she still can otherwise she'll end up regretting she did nothing about it.

8hammer8

Originally posted by EggFtegg

Well, that sounds a lot worse than just an inappropriate comment that slipped out. I'd agree that's the right decision then. Hopefully, this will be a lesson well learned.

I really wish this could be the case, but unless the woman being accused of spewing filth is 7 or 8 years old, there will be no lesson learned.  Learning a lesson from a negative situation actually requires feeling genuinly bad/ashamed of the incident that went badly. 

 Unfortunately people filled with this much hate will just use this to harden their current feelings.  "I got fired because of that (insert racial comment), if it was not for him/her being (insert race) they would have laughed and I would have a job still."  It is a lot easier to blame someone else for getting you fired than it is to look inside yourself as to the actual cause.  This woman will most likely keep moving on until she finds a work place of like minded people.  Sadly even today, it probably will not take too long.

Man, sometimes I hate being a realist...

To the OP I am glad she took it to someone and I am even happier that someone also chose to bare witness to the situation.  I hope things get resolved in a timely manner.