Another Political Correctness double standard
September 17th, 2007I want to make one thing clear. I am not agreeing nor disagreeing with what was said. I’m mentioning it for the context. Read on and you’ll know what I mean.
So, I talking to some co-workers the other day and somehow terrorism came up. One of my co-workers from India, we’ll call her “Betty,” mentioned that Muslim terrorists killed a bunch of people in her hometown. Betty then started going off on Muslims, how they’re always causing trouble and how Hindus and Buddhists never kill innocent people like that. It’s always the Muslims.
Then she went off on how Muslims breed and breed and breed. Hindus practice birth control and generally have two or less children per family. But Muslims will have too many kids, more kids than they can afford to raise, then a lot of those kids turn to terrorism because they can’t afford to feed them and send them to school.
Now, here’s MY issue. If an American said that at work, they’d be fired before you can say Human Resources. But instead, people were consoling Betty and telling her they felt bad that the terrorists did that to her town.
The one Muslim girl who was sitting with us was quiet. I felt bad for her so I quickly mentioned that all the Muslims I knew were cool, practiced birth control, and were fun to party with (which actually is true), and how America does a great job in weeding out the bad ones. I think it was there that the others realized that we had a Muslim girl sitting with us, but still, nothing.
Now, this story is probably even worse. At one of my old jobs, we had an English guy who worked with us who used to say off hand stuff all the time that would have gotten an American fired. But he’s English, and his accent is “cute,” so he got away with it.
One day, I have no idea how it came up, but he started talking about co-workers breasts, with some of the co-workers present. I should have walked away right there (to save my own a**), but curiosity took over and I stayed. Well, he started rating and comparing them, then taking guesses who had real ones and who had fake ones.
I don’t even have to say this, but if an American said that, he’d be gone and the women who were present would get nice checks from the company to save the company from lawsuits. But since he was English, it was all good. I even called one of the girls up on it and you know what she said? She said that it’s different in other countries so she wasn’t offended. Then I straight up asked if she would be offended if an American said the same thing and she said “of course!”
I rest my case.
Moral of the story - with political correctness, you’re better off being a foreigner, because Americans don’t get Free Speech at work.
That’s pretty fucked up. I was offended reading that. Most Muslims are nice people and she should have known better than to say that shit at work.
As for the breasts guy, they ought to fire him, and write you up for not telling him to shutup, and write up everyone who played in. I have no respect whatsoever for that female co-worker you mentioned. None. I hope that’s nobody I know. Please tell me that’s nobody I know.
I have to say I know some Pakistanians here and they are pretty neat people and I dont know how I would react if I were them for other people talking about them like that. Its awful people always have to put the blame on some one else. Just terrible.
Now the thing with the tits. I dont know if I could do that one. I have a hard time letting Jeff make fun of them when we are with other people so someone I dont know esp a co worker making fun of them would make me go over the edge and quickly. Men and women are all alike when it comes to bashing other people.I get fustrated with other people but I never bash them to there faces. I mean if you know where your co workers are from shut up and wait till that co worker has left the room or just dont say it at all. Stupid people.
JJ - You never write anyone up.
As for the lady, no, this was in Seattle.
Tweety - Yeah, I’ve yet to meet a Pakistani I didn’t like. They’re pretty cool.
As for the English guy, I was pretty upset none of my female co-workers were upset, and even thought it was cute. But if an American said it, they would have complained and he would have been fired. That’s what I was upset about. It was such poor taste, regardless of who said it.
gah…yet another reason i am in no hurry to get a job. i’d wind up calling folks on the double standards and get nailed to the wall for it probably.
What’s amazing about the Hindu girl is her total lack of awareness of the history of India. The reason that there’s a Pakistan at is because the Muslims of India didn’t feel comfortable living as a minority under Hindus. There was terrible rioting and violence between the Hindus and Muslims after colonial rule ended and the attrocities were on both sides.
Bravo to you for trying to make the Muslim girl feel less uncomfortable.
What’s irritating to me is knowing that these are just a couple examples of all the twisted PCness that goes on every day.
Wow. That’s pretty much all I can say.
So true. Its hard to knock a foreigner for what he says to anyone for some reason. I just dont get it but hey that is the world we live in today. It sucks but that is how it works.
I can understand Betty’s bitterness, but being victimized and being a minority really isn’t (IMO) a free ticket to be a lifelong bigot. I hope she gets over it. No Hindu terrorists? Are you kidding? What about the Tamil Tigers, one of the most vicious terrorist groups ever? What about the horrific torture, feudalism, and capital punishment condoned by the Dalai Lamas in Tibet? Every race/religion on the planet has its a-holes, and we all breed like crazed monkeys (except for the few nations like China that try to control their population growth with infanticide). I’d be HAPPY if one single group of people was responsible for all the ills of the world - then we could force them to live in the Antarctic or something and be done with it - but it just ain’t so.
SME - Very well said. I heard that widow burning still may go on in some of the more rural areas. I’ve seen the English images of it and it’s pretty sick. Men would hold these long wooden poles to push the widow back in the fire when they tried to jump out.
Every religion, every ethnicity, every group has its sins, and to single out one is ignorant of history.
Tweety - Yeah, they definitely get away with more, that’s for sure.
Kathleen - Yeah, both things set me off, but I try not to rock the boat because I actually like my work as I did that other job.
Shawn - The Muslim girl (I’m getting old, calling people in their early 20s kids) was really nice, and I felt bad for her. And yes, both sides were doing horrible things to each other. She’s being selective in what history she remembers.
Lime - That’s why I try not to get into anything political at work, and I really should have walked away from that 2nd story. Sometimes curiosity kills the cat.
Sometimes curiosity kills the cat.
Can we even still say that? It might rile cats and cat lovers. Just saying…
On a different note - I’ve never realized it until now, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a zombie cat. There’s been zombie dogs, zombie monkeys…all sorts of zombie animals. But never zombie cats. Maybe it’s because they would have to be turned nine times. It’s worth thinking about. I’m so going to have cats in my compound.
Cats get nine lives, then they just disintegrate. Thus, no zombiefication possible.
Hey now, leave the poor cats alone!
Just kidding.
As for double standards I can only tolerate the ones that favor me.
ZS - Do you have an email address?
Jaw hit the floor reading that. I absolutely hate multiple standards, and especially cannot stand the way that anything that comes from a certain island in the North Atlantic apparently is assumed to be (a) classy and/or (b) absolutely true.
I would have decked the breast a** or would have speculated about his own attributes (am not exaggerating here, have done that before. Usually ends the conversation).
As to the Muslim bit, OMG have never run into anyone that ignorant and hope I never do. Sorry that you were inflicted with both, ZS.
“Americans don’t get free speech at work…” Amen Brother! This post couldn’t have been more succinct in my opinion. Spot on Zombie.
Just - Yes I do. It’s zombieslayer AT pretentiouscritics DOT com.
Bridget - I don’t get that either (the attitude that for some reason, they’re experts at everything and more classy than anyone else). I would have loved to see you deck this guy. He was quite annoying. And you’re right, not being gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that), he was nothing to look at.
Moni - Thanks!
Does the cat in Pet Cemetery count as a zombie?
Courtney - After consulting the experts, no. That cat is technically a ghoul, not a zombie.