On a side note the previous thread about African workers is the first time in my life I've really experienced the overt racism that is portrayed as the norm by some people.
Due to growing up in a multi cultural area it's never really been a part of my life, for as long as I remember I've had friends of West Indian origin and they were just "friends".
My best mate Dave (made up name) is just Dave, or Dave from down the road not black Dave.
Anyway I couldn't believe how some of the people I worked with treated the African cleaners, more than once I was asked why I spoke to "those people!", we had cleaners sacked because they took home left-overs from company buffets? supervisors would stand there and make sure all the left-overs were thrown away.
Another similar incident I was told about was when the girls put some food in the fridge for people to have later, which after a complaint was all thrown away because they had touched it.
One famous case occured when one of the girls from Ghana was seen wearing a company coat (which had been loaned to her as it was pouring with rain that day and she had to walk to another part of the company), we were all interrogated to find out who had given her the coat, the manager concerned would not lower himself to actually speak to her and ask why she was wearing it (not that it really mattered anyway?).
Finally the person who loaned it to her became aware of the fuss and put the manager right, and we were all warned not to give contractors (meaning the cleaning contractors) anything?
The manager concerned was off sick for a few months afterwards, and I later found out the girls supervisor (a great guy from Uganda, who just happens to be a part time law student :) ) had made an official rascism claim (which it certainly was) and the company took the easy option of suspending him for 2 months while telling us he was ill.
Should have sacked the moron, he wouldn't have been missed.
Although an arsehole is an arsehole no matter what colour they are, and I was once accused of racism by a supervisor because I called him an arsehole during a heated argument, the fact he was black really wasn't an issue with me but I was hauled up in front of the management after he accused me of being racist, luckily a couple of other black workers who had witnessed the argument spoke up for me and told the management that at no time did I make any racist remarks and that the supervisor concerned acted like a complete arsehole and I had been provoked, and should be applauded for not making any racist remarks during what was a very heated confrontation.
Incidents like this do no favours for racial harmony, just as racism is unacceptable so using the racist card when there is no racism present is just as unacceptable.
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