Politics in the Office… and a moment of clarity
I share my cubicle with an older African American female Democrat. I myself am a young white female Republican, as most of you already know. We work side by side for several hours every day and, while we both know each other’s stance on the upcoming election, we don’t talk politics. Well… aside from “Did you see Michelle Obama last night? She looked good.” That’s about it. We get along just fine.
We share the rest of our office space with old, white Republican men. Constantly, we hear remarks about Obama that would put the McCain-Palin Mob video to shame. “He’s a terrorist.” “His middle name is Hussein.” “He won’t salute the flag or wear a flag pin.” Whatever… we’ve heard all of that before. We see it on the internet, we see it on the news. It’s all gotten pretty old by now. But today it hit an all-time low.
“Well, you know if Obama gets elected, he’s just gonna get assassinated by the KKK.”
Sure, he’s not the first person to have thought that, or even said it. But this is a work environment. I can handle opinions and crude remarks. I held my tongue for months while they made remarks about how horrible it would be to have a woman in office (however, they all just love Sarah Palin). I listen to jokes about sex and even in details recaps of prostate surgery. It’s whatever. But joking about someone getting murdered because of their race and laughing about it, standing right next to someone who has had to deal with racism her whole life, it’s just not okay.
My co-worker was visibly shaken by the remark. I really thought she was going to burst out into tears. She kept her composure and when we talked about it later, she said she wasn’t going to complain.
I walked down to HR and complained for her. Equality in the workplace should not be taken lightly. Nobody should have to listen to this crap.
After I went downstairs and gave my statement, I figured something out for the first time. Everyone always asks me why I am interested in law and I always say I want to help people. Today I realized it’s more than that… I want to protect people.
Good for you. At my past job, I was put in uncomfortable positions close to this. I did speak up but I wish now that I had done more.
