Racial Matters
It was Martin Luther King day on second shift. MLK Day was a recently established event at that time. I think MLK was a great man, worthy of all respect.
Almost half of my crew did not show up for work. Every single black person did not show up. We limped along that day and did not get much done. That loss of production put us into having to work Saturday.
I didn't say anything about it until the day before MLK day the following year. I asked a couple of the main opinion makers of the group if MLK was all about missing work. Also, I asked if the rest of us were supposed to have more respect for those who don't show up for work, because all it did was make us feel separated.
Sometimes people exploit the motivation of others to the extent that they could have their own way. Yes, I would rather avoid the subject too. To me, race shouldn't be a factor in anything. But someone always has to try. Why wouldn't they? They try everything else.
For example, a black worker kept missing work time and time again for the same tooth. I asked him, "Why don't you get an appointment and get that thing taken care of?"
He told me, "You sound like you are a little bit prejudiced."
"What does that have to do with anything? And another thing; telling me that I am prejudiced is very offensive. If you do it again, I will send you home."
I guess the guy was used to saying that kind of stuff and probably scared off most of the people he used it on. To me, that is evil. He didn't pursue further accusations of bigotry, so I did not have to make good on my threat, which maybe would have stirred the pot in the minds of some.
Another time I was on a committee with workers from another of our plants from a distant State. Priscilla was some kind of facilitator for the committee. One of the other people on the committee was a black woman. To her, every time I disagreed with her, which was often, was taken as racially motivated. I knew as a supervisor, that her ideas would never be accepted, and told her as much. She kept with the racial comments which really did make me more angry, which in turn she attributed to racial hostility.
Race had nothing to do with the fact that she didn't know what the hell she was talking about. Since her ideas would not stand up to logic, she would always take refuge on the race thing again.
Based upon what I heard her say in the past, I know with all certainty my boss Priscilla had a prejudicial negative idea of black people, which made her sound ignorant. Yet during our meeting, she acted like she was the high-minded person who was going to help steer me in the right direction.
When the meeting ended the black woman offered to shake hands and made the crude comment that the black wouldn't rub off. Very insulting, for sure. I was so sick of her, I said I wanted no more to do with the committee.
Evidently Priscilla was out badmouthing me again, since people who had nothing to do with the committee seemed to know all about it. Our maintenance manager at the Company, an openly avowed drug user, was going around telling black people that I was afraid of them. What a dope.
Racism at work is not only illegal and ugly, it is stupid. Business is supposed to run as efficiently as possible. The evil practice of excluding a valuable human resource because of race is self-defeating. Likewise, forcing any action at work solely based on race has the same effect.
Personally, I have always loved diversity in race and nationality. I have learned foreign languages. Diversity is what makes life interesting, and gives people freedom.