Race card

[seigus]

After having been thoroughly chastened, I bring this question here: when people pull the race card, do they think that's really the issue, or is it a smokescreen? What's the percentage, in your opinion, of people who really believe that's the issue?

[HYHYBT]

There's going to be a lot of variation in this, of course, but I've had it tried on me so few times that I think they must have really felt that way.

[KitterCat]

Didn't mean to get you chastised.

I think it depends on the person and depends on what they derive to be racism. Some people really think others are being raciest to them - even if their not. Others are just using it as a smoke screen. Take for example the gentleman that I wrote about using the race card. As soon as he had another co-worker who had dealt with him before show up he stopped using that tactic. Hence smokescreen. Thankfully I do believe its been in decline with each generation.

Personally the ones I’ve always found to be the worst are the people who claim they cant be raciest because their “insert skin color/nationality/religion here”. Trying to tell them that logically they just proclaimed themselves to be raciest because they are now looking down on every other skin color/nationality/religion doesn’t seem to sway them in their beliefs ether.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I apologize.
A question for the forum, then, regarding the customer - when people pull the race card, do they think that's really the issue, or is it a smokescreen?

The race card is great at putting people on the defensive--the conversation changes from why you can't give the user what they want to why you're not a racist. People generally don't like being on the defensive.

I'd say it's about 50/50. Some people who use the race card really believe they are being treated differently due to their race; others know they're not but they use it anyway to get what they want.

[Andara Bledin]

*MOD EDIT - Removed unnecessary information that adds nothing to the thread.

The only person who has ever pulled a race card on me was some crazy black dude who liked to act crazier than he actually was to get people to either give him things or freak people out. He'd usually fixate on some white woman and start ranting in her direction about being oppressed and being crazy and how he was going to kill everybody. It was usually quite a pathetic display. I only ever saw him on the bus, and never saw him get away with not paying the fare; none of the bus drivers were having any of it, and at least one told him to knock it off or he was getting kicked off the bus at the next stop.

^-.-^

[Ree]

Just a reminder that we really don't need this thread to turn into a glossary of racist terms.

[Victoria J]

I guess I should add my opinion into the right thread.

In my experience every single case (a handful over about 7 years work directed at me, rather more sighted) I can think of was deliberate manipulation. The person knew I was not being racist but claimed otherwise to either try and make me do something they wanted (and that I wouldn't have done for anyone regardless of race) or to try and strengthen a complaint that was already unreasonable (like the woman who was also claiming I hit her ).

This mirrors my experience with complaints in general. I can't think of a single complaint against myself - either made to my management or yelled at me - that was not unreasonable. That's not because I am wonderful, I've had customers who would have had quite legitimate complaints about me but they've either quitely gone away or tried to resolve things. The complainers are generally the ones you could never have satisfied because they wanted something so unreasonable in the first place.

I once talked to one of the people who deals with national complaints for organisations like mine. I asked them (in as polite a way as possible) what their similar ratio was. Almost all national complaints were what could be called "unhelpful", complaints that did not highlight a real problem with the service offered but were either unreasonable or slightly off the wall. Yet again there are plenty of legitimate problems people could complain about.

In contrast I've helped people through my work who have been subject to racist abuse and racist discrimination. They have tended to be shocked, to immediately react with introspection and, almost, embarrassment. They are quiet, they double check, they look for ways to reinterpret. They are very worried people will disagree (sometimes people won't even mention that they think a problem has a racial element, a particular problem I think as a white adviser as people may doubt I'll understand). While obviously people shouldn't feel bad about themselves because someone mistreated them they often do. They're worried about raising the issue openly in case they face more racism.

I've always included it in my list of things that when said aren't true. Many people suffer racist treatment, everyone I've ever heard yelling that they have suffered such treatment hasn't.

ETA - everyone yelling literally, instantly and in the hope of progressing some complaint to their benefit anyway. I have great respect for people who think these things over and loudly take forward real complaints. In my experience it's a hard thing to do, and it's necessary to make things better for other people. I realised immediately after posting that what I wrote suggested anyone who had really suffered disrcimination should keep quiet - which I really don't mean. I'm talking about the instant "you just insulted me" challenge only.

Victoria J.

[Ashaela]

The cases that I've run into have all been instances where the SC wasn't getting what he/she wanted and decided that intimidation was the way to go. The charge of racism is such a hot-button topic - in some cases, it can be documented/proven over a period of time; most often, it's the result of perception. A particular cashier could be terribly rude to a customer because she's a racist, or she could be cranky, or just be having a horrible day and not intending to be rude at all; without jacking a wire into her brain and downloading all her thoughts and emotions, there's no way to prove what the cause of her behaviour is. Crying "Racism" is an easy way to put people on the defensive ( or scare managers into giving the SC whatever they want) and people who know they are trying to get away with something also know the best ways to do push others around. Just the allegation is enough to ruin someone.

I'm not trying by any means to say that racism doesn't exist.... But I do believe that institutionalized racism is much less common than the accusations would make it out to be. I just can't think that there are many store managers / business owners / financial moguls who would willingly give up the money they'd lose by insulting and driving off a significant portion of their customer base, or allowing their employees to openly indulge racist beliefs in their interactions with customers.

[taxguykarl]

I vote for manipulation technique. Some might actually believe that they are victims, to be certain; but then there are quite a few who believe the earth is flat.

[Beckduer]

The one time I had someone call me racist (as a form of manipulation), the offended one was one of my black co-workers. I am white (VERY white!).

I was safe enough in my position to be able to ask him "Does it make you feel more powerful when you say that?"

He just stared at me, slightly confused.

I continued, "Let me explain, my sister, who is darker than you and has known me most of her life, has NEVER had any cause to accuse me or mine of racism. For you to accuse me of that with less than 8 weeks knowledge of me is absolutely absurd. I believe you're angry that I won't let you have your way, and this is your grown-up temper tantrum. You are creating a hostile environment for me and my direct reports and I won't tolerate it. Shape up or I'll get HR involved."

As he continued to stare at me, my sister came to get me to go to lunch. I greeted her, as I always do, with "Hi, Baby!" and a kiss on the head and half-hug, which she returned. The co-worker looked slightly shocked and asked, "That's your sister?!! But, you're white!"

I should mention that this co-worker had been hitting on my sister since he started working there and she kept turning him down and actually reported him to HR for his constant sexual advances.

He didn't last much longer at that office. As I understand, he was terminated for "creating a hostile work enviroment, actively participating in sexual harassment of co-workers and generally creating chaos".

[BeeMused]

A police officer of Turkish descent told me once that he gets it from all sides. When he's dealing with "evil doers" of Turkish descent they get angry and call him a racist, because he won't cut them any slack. "Bad guys" from other ethnic groups accuse him of racism too, when he has to do his work. Looks like he can't win. Officers of German descent don't as much crap, apparently.

Fighting real racism is important, I'm all for it, but those people who play the race card just to gain some extras, they are not helping.

[lobo94]

A jerk is a jerk regardless of race, creed, color, and all that other stuff.

[WanderingSaint]

I was actually just thinking about posting all of the 'race cards' that have been pulled on me, but I think I'll wait a bit more.

I have to say, for me, 99% of the time the complaints were smokescreen with only a smaaalll touch of worry that we were being racist. 90% of the time it was handled well and defused as despite myself being painfully white, I have an exceptionally multi-culti background so I'm able to grab something from my life experiences to calm the person down, whether they are using smoke screen or are honestly worried.

Only once were they right, and it had nothing to do with us, but how a company had described their product on the site. It was a babies cradle, and when we got the e-mailed complaint about the description being painfully racist, we went and read it thinking 'I wonder what tiny little thing pissed them off ' and... holy crap it WAS! It was a Native American themed cradle, and WOW did they add on a whole bunch of horribly cliche'ed stuff into the description! 'Red Skins' 'Run Free In A Buck Skin Leotard' 'Injun Giver' were a few things I remember from it.

We changed said description immediately, then sent a link to the original company to the customer (and to the company, though they were notorious for no communication) for a proper complaint as it was their original description on their site that had transferred to ours.

We ended up looking through all of their cradles (BABY CRADLES! You would think this would be something not racially charged!) which had all of the companies original description for them on our site... and ended up changing 6 MORE!!

*headdesk*

I won't say which country the cradles came from, just say that they speak English and were popular despite their insane prices because everyone bought them out of pride for their country.

It is now noted we are NEVER to copy paste this companies descriptions when they submit new goods. All descriptions must be reviewed for 'PC Issues'.

BABY CRADLES!! All the flack I've gotten and been able to prove incorrect and the one time it's true it's baby cradles! I still shake my head at that and it's been over a year.

[draggar]

After having been thoroughly chastened, I bring this question here: when people pull the race card, do they think that's really the issue, or is it a smokescreen? What's the percentage, in your opinion, of people who really believe that's the issue?

Working in a very "diverse" area I've had the race card pulled out on me more times than I can count.

"You won't help me because I'm (insert ethnicity)". I've even been told this over the phone (wow, I must be good if I can tell their ethnicity over the phone!).

I just back up my decision with facts and policies - I never even mention elasticities. It's funny how I reach these decisions before I even see the customer 90% of the time.

Some people just like to use it as a scare tactic to get what they want - even if they don't deserve it.

[Can I Help Your A$$?]

So, when Lou Dobbs gets his new job at a Big Box store, we know it'll be a REAL instance to use the card!