Might be getting bollocked at work for being a racist.

[The Bumlord]

Simply corner your complaint-happy colleague in private and  threaten him so aggressively and relentlessly that he never, ever says anything again, then leaves the company and has a mental breakdown.

[Crenners]

What you should have done is

[Kankurette]

No, I don't think you were racist. And it would be nice if we could actually discuss this without the usual suspects getting on their soapboxes about the evils of idpol.

[Dr Trouser]

Your colleague sounds like a whiney cunt to be honest.

[Icehaven]

Couldn't the white family just convert to Islam to access the charity? Recite the Shahada loudly at the start of all interactions with the charity for good measure and the elimination of ambiguity.

Only being half facetious, surely they would actually qualify for the charity's help if they did this.

I was going to say something similar. Not seriously suggesting it of course but it didn't all actually start because of the family's race, it was because of their religion (or lack of). That it's morphed into a different issue, prompted by someone else, isn't your fault.

I also said that it was difficult to talk about white privilege to families who have fuck all and live in slums which have some of the lowest life-expectancies in Europe.

Yes it'd be interesting to know what your manager would have thought if you'd told the family they should have worked harder.

[Replies From View]

If I was your boss I would bollock you so hard right now for being an absolute racist

[Ike Turner]

Yeah, here's what you did wrong.

You did not research this charity before you got the family's hopes up and wasted their time. Instead of owning that (or saying something like "we need a list of charities with a little blurb about who exactly they cater for so this doesn't happen again") you said well the family thought a Muslim only charity was racist and they're not going to understand a bunch of social justice buzzwords. What was the point of bringing that up? What outcome did you hope to achieve? This is not a trap by the way, I'm genuinely interested.

A colleague (actually the one who is pissed off with me) had researched the charity, brought it to the team's attention and had assured the whole team that they helped anyone of any race/ religion. That's why I brought it up in the meeting so others didn't make the same mistake. Totally get that I should have done more to avoid getting the family's hopes up.

In team meetings we often try and focus on the families that use our services and also discuss out attitudes towards them as people. We talk about all sorts; how people seem so interested in the size of their TVs, and the feelings of distaste that some colleagues have towards our service user group, and what is 'good enough'. We have a lot of training happening at the moment regarding BLM and institutional bias and I thought it was interesting to discuss how white privilege still exists amongst communities that are extremely neglected and impoverished, and their perception of that. I was also interested in how I could have dealt with their annoyance better (also one of the reasons for starting this thread).

[canadagoose]

I'll admit that I'm confused about what the actual racism was that you're being taken to task for. Is there a summary of it?

[Fambo Number Mive]

Shouldn't your colleague be facing some kind of telling of from their boss for giving incorrect information to other team members in the first place? I understand that these things do happen but surely making sure staff know the correct criteria that a charity uses when helping people is quite important?

[Ike Turner]

I was going to say something similar. Not seriously suggesting it of course but it didn't all actually start because of the family's race, it was because of their religion (or lack of). That it's morphed into a different issue, prompted by someone else, isn't your fault.

When you complete the online application, you have to tick boxes saying that you believe that 'there is no god but Allah' and stuff like that.

[Ike Turner]

I'll admit that I'm confused about what the actual racism was that you're being taken to task for. Is there a summary of it?

I'm quite relaxed about it as saying that 'finding out the charity was for Muslims caused a bit of a kick off from the family' isn't remotely racist. I get that if I had kicked off saying that the charity was racist then I could get called in to the manager's office or put on some training but I was very careful not to do that and actually stated I agreed with what the charity was doing.

Shouldn't your colleague be facing some kind of telling of from their boss for giving incorrect information to other team members in the first place? I understand that these things do happen but surely making sure staff know the correct criteria that a charity uses when helping people is quite important?

I do wonder if the complaint against me is a bit of defelection.

[gilbertharding]

I noticed the other day that the BBC felt it necessary to apologise for allowing Len Goodman to say, on air, that his grandmother used to say that she thought that curry powder was "foreign muck" but that he liked Coronation chicken.

So, I think you should get the BBC to apologise for you.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Shouldn't your colleague be facing some kind of telling of from their boss for giving incorrect information to other team members in the first place? I understand that these things do happen but surely making sure staff know the correct criteria that a charity uses when helping people is quite important?

Is the complaint about ike (weird choice of username!) a deflection from this perhaps? Good move if so

[touchingcloth]

I'll admit that I'm confused about what the actual racism was that you're being taken to task for. Is there a summary of it?

The OP?

"Bollocked for being a racist" might overstate it a little, but my interpretation is that a colleague interpreted Ike's comments in a similar way as if he'd have come into work on Comic Relief and apropos of nothing started a rant about how the Red Nose money should go to British kids.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Footage of Ike's fateful meeting released:


 https://youtu.be/NaFjLZvRNFU

[gilbertharding]

Seriously though - I know of at least one charity (Release International) which helps Christian people who are suffering persecution around the world. But most explicitly Christian charities who do poverty relief are clear they will help anyone who needs it.

[touchingcloth]

I've just raised Ike's comments in a meeting at work. We have "volunteer days" where you are allowed to spend a working day each month helping out with charity or community projects. I mentioned that there is this charity which only helps the Muslims, and I suggested that it would be nice if we thought about ways we could help everyone except the Muslims. There was a very noisy reaction to my proposal, and like Ike I was also invited to have a meeting with my manager, the CEO, and a local police constable specialising in anti-racism measures. I can't flesh out the details just yet as I'm about to go into the meeting, but when I've finished with them congratulating me (maybe suggesting I head up the company's volunteer days? Or that I do more than one day each month?) I'll give you more specifics about how I worded things in this morning's meeting and it might give you some ideas, Ike, about why your comments backfired so horribly.

[Martin Van Buren Stan]

We have a lot of training happening at the moment regarding BLM and institutional bias and I thought it was interesting to discuss how white privilege still exists amongst communities that are extremely neglected and impoverished, and their perception of that.

That sounds like a hugely worrying attitude for charity workers to have and like it could lead to bias against those service users. Why even talk about the "privilege" of some of the most vulnerable members of society? It's bollocks

[Ike Turner]

I suggested that it would be nice if we thought about ways we could help everyone except the Muslims

started a rant about how the Red Nose money should go to British kids

Oh fuck off, I did nothing approaching that.

[Des Wigwam]

The OP?

"Bollocked for being a racist" might overstate it a little, but my interpretation is that a colleague interpreted Ike's comments in a similar way as if he'd have come into work on Comic Relief and apropos of nothing started a rant about how the Red Nose money should go to British kids.

Yes. Maybe the colleague who actually gave out the information that's at the root of this misunderstood the point you were making. Pass-Agg it, I say.

[TrenterPercenter]

The OP?

"Bollocked for being a racist" might overstate it a little, but my interpretation is that a colleague interpreted Ike's comments in a similar way as if he'd have come into work on Comic Relief and apropos of nothing started a rant about how the Red Nose money should go to British kids.

That is a pretty dire or at best unfunny regaling of what the OP said TC.

[Des Wigwam]

That is a pretty dire or at best unfunny regaling of what the OP said TC.

Is it? I thought it was a decent analogy based on an interpretation of the situation with no malice intended. Was also surprised at OPs response to it.

[Martin Van Buren Stan]

Oh fuck off, I did nothing approaching that.

Tc was saying your colleague misinterpreted your comments that way

[touchingcloth]

That is a pretty dire or at best unfunny regaling of what the OP said TC.

Tc was saying your colleague misinterpreted your comments that way

Yes, what MVBS says.

The OP wasn't ranting about the charity only supporting Muslims - quite the opposite - but my sense was that the colleague who complained must have misinterpreted it as if Ike was making some "them bloody Muslims" type of comment.

Unless like others have suggested it's pure arse-covering projection and deflection from the complainant.

[Ike Turner]

Sorry. Got the impression that the Comic Relief thing was like you said but the volunteer days one seemed a bit different. Apologies.

[touchingcloth]

Sorry. Got the impression that the Comic Relief thing was like you said but the volunteer days one seemed a bit different. Apologies.

The volunteer day things was a not particularly great joke. For what it's worth I don't see anything problematic in your comments about what you said at work, so based on that it's hard to see how anyone could be offended except through misinterpretation. @Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse made the suggestion that maybe you raised a valid point but in a situation where it was irrelevant or insensitive, but based on the post you made about the context of diversity training and discussions you've all been having it doesn't even sound like that's a factor.

[TrenterPercenter]

Yes, what MVBS says.

The OP wasn't ranting about the charity only supporting Muslims - quite the opposite - but my sense was that the colleague who complained must have misinterpreted it as if Ike was making some "them bloody Muslims" type of comment.

Unless like others have suggested it's pure arse-covering projection and deflection from the complainant.

Got ya. Makes sense now.

[katzenjammer]

Couldn't the white family just convert to Islam to access the charity? Recite the Shahada loudly at the start of all interactions with the charity for good measure and the elimination of ambiguity.

Only being half facetious, surely they would actually qualify for the charity's help if they did this.

I would happily do this. I'd be genuinely interested to see how they worded the criteria for offering someone aid or not. From a practical point of view it must be quite hard to implement.

[turnstyle]

If I were you I'd lean into the racism. They won't be expecting that.

"Mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy" - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

[touchingcloth]

I would happily do this. I'd be genuinely interested to see how they worded the criteria for offering someone aid or not. From a practical point of view it must be quite hard to implement.

All sorts of hilarity could ensue. Think George Costanza joining the Latvian Orthodox Church, or Larry David exclaiming "you wanna check my penis?"

All I'm saying is that there are ways that Ike could turn this situation into at least one decent post in the "comedy cliches in real life" thread.

I'm a little sad that my brother's vasectomy means I'll never have the chance to see his newborn baby and cry "it's a mulatto!" and I hope Ike doesn't live to share similar regrets.