Colleague sacked for being Racist

sup3rc0w said:
I'm not playing Devil's advocate, but could this been taken out of proportion.
I had a black work mate, and me and him had a good relationship, where we used to mock eachother lots etc. I used to call him "Token" ... my token (The N word ) friend. It was taken in jest , since we were good mates ... and I played up to beeing a stereotype South African.
He took no offense, and I took no offense to the Slurs he chucked my way.
But if someone elswe might have overheard and been offended, could I have been fired because of it ?
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Exactly the same way i am with my asian, black and even white mates...we all have a laugh and joke...racially abuse each other but we know that we are taking the mick out of each other and we all accept that.......

But theres a good chance that someone could have overheard and reported you and your mate for racism within the workplace...which imho is stupid...who and what gives the other person the right to make a complaint lol.
 
LordSplodge said:
You cannot be racist aginst white people... double standards.

However, racism at work is silly. Just don't do it...
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Oh im sure you can, theres no doubt about that. The thing is most white people couldnt care less tbh, perhaps there are a few who would take great offence to someone calling them a stupid white honky etc etc. But on the whole white people seem to be more chilled out compared to the black and asian people who cry racism at every opportunity they can get.
 
Spawn said:
Totally agree with you there CBS, personally i think this whole racism thing is a bit overrated imho. I dont think ive ever accused anyone of being racist towards me in my life...even growing up in Canada i was racially taunted as the place i grew up in had no other asians other than me and my family. But did i let it affect me??, nah not really...yes it did hurt because everyone i guess wants to be accepted by others. So maybe thats why i dont take the whole racism thing too seriously....
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When I was growing up kids got taunted for being fat, being ginger, being small, being thin and so on. Why is "racism" so much more "offensive", why does it have its own little special set of rules?

I could call someone a fat, ugly, smelly, ginger, whatever and only be accused of being aggressive or abusive,

However if I called them a fat, ugly, smelly, ginger ***** - well now that would be racist. That is so much more of a crime. :rolleyes:

(Our travelling cousins of Southern Irish decent are now officially a recognised ethnic minority in their own right for those who were unaware of this. This was pointed out to me by one of their brethren who I "had words" with for being abusive to a young lady. He told me " you can't talk to me like that because it is racist, we have the same rights as Pakis(tanis) now". He felt that his new found ethnic minority status enabled him new protections under the law and the right to use racist terminology about others. Sad but true. Almost funny as well).
 
Spawn said:
Oh im sure you can, theres no doubt about that. The thing is most white people couldnt care less tbh, perhaps there are a few who would take great offence to someone calling them a stupid white honky etc etc. But on the whole white people seem to be more chilled out compared to the black and asian people who cry racism at every opportunity they can get.
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I'd agree with that - which is why I was saying that I still feel I get the better deal because I don't think of myself as "racially challenged" so I don't really feel it. If someone insults me on the basis of race, I will react as if they insulted me but that doesn't mean I feel bad about my race
 
Spawn said:
Exactly the same way i am with my asian, black and even white mates...we all have a laugh and joke...racially abuse each other but we know that we are taking the mick out of each other and we all accept that.......
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The trouble is, he had already had a written warning for his previous actions. The guy who got fired should have been more careful and given the complainer a wide birth.

But without specifics about what was said, and information relating to the context its hard to say if its right or wrong or just PC gone mad.
 
Why is "racism" so much more "offensive", why does it have its own little special set of rules?
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The history of acts done under the guise of racism is somewhat more chequered than those performed on the basis of weight, attractiveness or gingerness.

That said, everyone knows gingers have no souls [/cartman]
 
Spawn said:
Dont be silly, how the hell do you know that for sure???. Ive worked for companies where asians/blacks were sacked for making stupid comments towards their own kind and white people. Hell in my first job i had to complain abotu a black guy who was being quite stupid towards me, made a few racist comments and like this story i put up with it then in the end decided not to. It works both ways, granted we dont live in an ideal world but if a company panders to the ethnic minorities too much then i dont feel thats right.

But then perhaps white people are a bit more tolerant when it comes to things of this nature...i dont know....but thats a silly comment to make without any proof.
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Other than your story you don't have proof either. However, there are numerous accounts of people being racially abused but nothing done about it because they were white. There are always isolated cases each way.
 
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Looks like a fairly simple case to me, and no real need to start making it a huge race issue.

Person X was asked to stop doing something that would pretty much defiantely be against the company code of conduct as a formal warning.

Person X carried on doing it after the warning.

Person X gets the boot.

Sounds pretty simple and straight forward to me. The actual offense doesn't matter, provided the company procedures are followed. It would seem that both sides would like to play the 'race card' either to make things look worse than they are or to claim it's some form of conspiracy.
 
Dolph said:
Looks like a fairly simple case to me, and no real need to start making it a huge race issue.

Person X was asked to stop doing something that would pretty much defiantely be against the company code of conduct as a formal warning.

Person X carried on doing it after the warning.

Person X gets the boot.

Sounds pretty simple and straight forward to me. The actual offense doesn't matter, provided the company procedures are followed. It would seem that both sides would like to play the 'race card' either to make things look worse than they are or to claim it's some form of conspiracy.
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It was verbal abuse. End of, doesn't matter what was actually said, be it sexist, racist, ageist, gingerist (lol, like that's a word), about weight, looks, intelligence. It was just an insult. Seems like the right call too. It shouldn't be taken any more or less seriously if it was racist.

I have to admit although I've rarely been on the end of racial slurs (I'm white), when they do happen I actually find it a million times less offensive than for instance being called ugly, or stupid, let alone any of the really offensive stuff. Go figure.
 
Rotty said:
"joking" is not something that will wash these days

his only chance would be to say that the words had legitimate meaning and were not offensive

for example ( difficult to explain without use of words ) P*** is short for Pakistani and could possibly be argued , N***** is a very awkward one as a a lot of younger black people refer to themselves or each other by it but it usually deemed offensive if used by a white person
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could easily get away with th N word using your example there, as stating that it is only offensive if a white person says it is racist...however- i dont condone the use of the word, nor do i tolerate others using it.

/expecting the lil animated gif of the kid saying "THATS RACIST!"
 
VIRII said:
Racism often appears to be in the eye of the beholder.
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Yep, and if he was asked to stop because the guy complained, then it's an open and shut case.

As a counterexample... I have a French Muslim colleague. My boss often takes the mick any time there is any sort of terrorist incident, and is always saying "Don't mind him, he's French" and "Don't mind him, he's from Barcelona" (yes, we know Barcelona isn't in France, but that's not the point). Now, the French guy doesn't mind, so in this case it's fine. If he suddenly decided he didn't like it though, then it would be down to my boss to stop, and I'd wager he would.
 
Dolph said:
Looks like a fairly simple case to me, and no real need to start making it a huge race issue.

Person X was asked to stop doing something that would pretty much defiantely be against the company code of conduct as a formal warning.

Person X carried on doing it after the warning.

Person X gets the boot.

Sounds pretty simple and straight forward to me. The actual offense doesn't matter, provided the company procedures are followed. It would seem that both sides would like to play the 'race card' either to make things look worse than they are or to claim it's some form of conspiracy.
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Agree totally.
 
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