I Am Not A Slave
Staff meetings are always weird in my office. My consulting team is very diverse, and everybody’s just trying their best to communicate with each other. We all mediate racial, gender, political and generational differences while trying to figure out what holiday event we’re having this year. During the closing minutes of last week’s meeting, we … Read more
Jessica
I’ve been doing field observations in different cities for the last month or so. I used to be excited to go on business trips, now I actually fantasize about being at my desk at the office when I’m driving a rental car at 5 o’clock in the morning in the middle of nowhere. Plus these … Read more
The Land of No Code-Switch
The racial composition of my office is pretty diverse. This means that everyone employs some behavioral adjustments to better communicate with one another and exhibit some cultural sensitivity. Of course people slip up, which is why I’ve posted so much on this blog. It’s always interesting to witness people in specific demographics change their behavior when they are surrounded … Read more
In The Club
My Labor Day weekend went off without a hitch. I got things done, I ran errands, I partied, I potlucked. There were so many people in town that I had to schedule my weekend activities on Outlook. I got new followers, new “friends”, new subscribers and nobody got arrested; it was a win. The highlight … Read more
Ratios
Code switching. Most of us do it. Some of us turn down the African American Vernacular English (“You seen this email?” vs. “Have you seen this email?”) or maybe hold off on the “rapper hands” annotating each rap lyric thumping through your earphones. Code switching also encompasses thoughts and behaviors that are effected by stereotype … Read more
For Novelty’s Sake
The post-racial society. A time in which people think racism doesn’t exist anymore simply because you can’t go around town killing Black men all willy-nilly. There are reoccurring arguments from academic communities that suggest that there is no such thing as “race”, and that we are all really distant relatives from Africa (Hey! We’re all Black!). Other arguments state … Read more
That’s So Ghetto! (Pt. II)
That’s So Ghetto! Most of the managers were out of the office on Monday for a training conference, so the coworkers threw a party (naturally). Nothing out of control, we just told everybody to grab food and meet in the conference room to watch YouTube videos during lunch. We made a grocery list and everyone … Read more
BlackWhite Handshake
We’ve done posts in the past about the handshake dilemma between Black and White people. When Black people and White people introduce themselves to each other in the office, everyone pretty much sticks to the standard handshake (unless you work for some phone app development company where dudes where ironic t-shirts and everyone wears knitted … Read more
Conscious White People
I went to the the coffee shop yesterday to splurge on a $5 cup of Joe. When I got my venti soy caffe latte (no foam), I sat down near two White people. As I sipped my over-caffeinated concoction, I could hear the conversation they were having. The White guy was telling his homegirl about his … Read more
Oh You Comfy Huh?
I attended a birthday celebration at a winery this past week. When I arrived, I took a seat at one of the reserved tables for the party. As I sat conversing with friends, I realized that there was an unfamiliar group of women sitting at a reserved table adjacent to mine. They sorta looked like … Read more
