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is this racists?

My manager said this to me " from my experience with working and growing up with people from your background, it seem like most people from your background are arrogant, i don't know if that is racist but i don't care. Hopefully this job will remove those traits from you."

I didn't really reply, i was thinking what to say then realised if i say i am not arrogant, it will make me look even more arrogant in his eyes.

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Sounds racist to me (obviously I don’t know the full back story both of ur relationship w ur boss and ur background) but I’d say it’s racist yes
idk what is meant by background maybe he means ur class or something but it could be and it cud be not
Original post by anonymous230
idk what is meant by background maybe he means ur class or something but it could be and it cud be not

Given the manager said he didn’t know if he was being racist I think his comment was to do with race
Original post by Anonymous
My manager said this to me " from my experience with working and growing up with people from your background, it seem like most people from your background are arrogant, i don't know if that is racist but i don't care. Hopefully this job will remove those traits from you."

I didn't really reply, i was thinking what to say then realised if i say i am not arrogant, it will make me look even more arrogant in his eyes.


I thought this was going to be one of them dumb posts where something was not racist is seen as racist. But no that is DEFINITELY racist. Report this **** head
Original post by Sophhhowa
Given the manager said he didn’t know if he was being racist I think his comment was to do with race

yh ik wat u mean but even still but yh most likely
Reply 6
Too little information to tell to be honest.
I dont know why everyone is confused or unsure.

He is talking about growing up with people of OPs background, he mentioned he isnt sure if it is racist which confirms he was not referring to working class or anything else. It was very much race related.
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by Anonymous
My manager said this to me " from my experience with working and growing up with people from your background, it seem like most people from your background are arrogant, i don't know if that is racist but i don't care. Hopefully this job will remove those traits from you."

I didn't really reply, i was thinking what to say then realised if i say i am not arrogant, it will make me look even more arrogant in his eyes.


Original post by Napp
Too little information to tell to be honest.


I agree with Napp, but that's pretty much par for the course because he's usually right about things like this. The supposition that it's somehow racist rests on 'people from your background', and this could be anything: social, political or racial. Without context or further detail, it's impossible to tell.

At a educated guess, the 'hopefully this job will remove those traits from you' bit combined with the 'arrogant' bit leads me to think the person was referring to class, and a sense of entitlement, rather than anything racial-related.
Original post by Reality Check
What an imbecile...


The imbecile is the person who jumps to " You think that just because someone is white they cant criticize others". What a stupid thing to say when we dont even know the managers race. What evidence do you have that this was a white person? Instead of telling people that they've made judgements purely based on race of the two people in this scenario... even though we weren't even given this information.
(edited 3 years ago)
Can you report him to someone? He has no right to speak to you like this and yes it is racist.
Original post by Reality Check
I agree with Napp, but that's pretty much par for the course because he's usually right about things like this. The supposition that it's somehow racist rests on 'people from your background', and this could be anything: social, political or racial. Without context or further detail, it's impossible to tell.

At a educated guess, the 'hopefully this job will remove those traits from you' bit combined with the 'arrogant' bit leads me to think the person was referring to class, and a sense of entitlement, rather than anything racial-related.


If that's the case, why did the manager specifically say "I don't know if that is racist but I don't care"? There's a possibility that she could have a total misunderstanding of what racism is and wrongly believe that judging somebody based on their class falls into this bracket (which it obviously doesn't). That's possible but not the most likely, I'd say.
Original post by Burridge
If that's the case, why did the manager specifically say "I don't know if that is racist but I don't care"? There's a possibility that she could have a total misunderstanding of what racism is and wrongly believe that judging somebody based on their class falls into this bracket (which it obviously doesn't). That's possible but not the most likely, I'd say.


This was exactly my point, but I got told I had no real evidence and was just assuming things based on "Classic mistake of white people not being able to criticise others"
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by blitterflicker
This was exactly my point, but I got told I had no real evidence and was just assuming things based on the manager being a white person...

Yeah, something must have got lost in translation somewhere. How do we even know the race of anyone involved? :s-smilie:
Original post by Burridge
Yeah, something must have got lost in translation somewhere. How do we even know the race of anyone involved? :s-smilie:


Lol exactly. We don't!

But apparently we all have a "Victimhood mentality" so the manager must be white 🤷*♀️
(edited 3 years ago)
Of course it's racist. Even the boss realises hence his comment about "sorry if it sounds racist". People here denying it are delusional and probably think racism has to be in your face to be legitimate. Stop trying to brush the topic of racism under the carpet as a "victimhood mentality" - it needs to be acknowledged and the perpetrators need to be called out.
Reply 16
Original post by Anonymous
My manager said this to me " from my experience with working and growing up with people from your background, it seem like most people from your background are arrogant, i don't know if that is racist but i don't care. Hopefully this job will remove those traits from you."

I didn't really reply, i was thinking what to say then realised if i say i am not arrogant, it will make me look even more arrogant in his eyes.

The fact that he’s acknowledged what he said “could” be racist but then went on to say he doesn’t care just goes to show his intention behind that comment . If something makes you uncomfortable ( especially at work ) talk out against it / address it with him
Reply 17
Original post by blitterflicker
I dont know why everyone is confused or unsure.

He is talking about growing up with people of OPs background, he mentioned he isnt sure if it is racist which confirms he was not referring to working class or anything else. It was very much race related.

I completely agree

Original post by Reality Check
You're making a classic error that just because someone is not white, any criticism of them must be based in racism. This is called a victim mentality, and doesn't get you very far in life. You can criticise a non-white person and not be racist at the same time...

You have no evidence that it was racist, and no way of telling - so why are you so definitive in your analysis?

The manager said he didn’t know if he was being racist, so the background is clearly referring to race. And the fact that he ‘doesn’t care’ clearly presents the manager as having racist intentions which he takes no issue with.

When you are criticising a non-white person for their race being arrogant, please don’t use ‘victim mentality’ because it is just pure racism.
Original post by epicnm
The manager said he didn’t know if he was being racist, so the background is clearly referring to race.


Why can you definitively come to this conclusion? What about if the manager was pre-empting the OP playing the race card, when his actual intention was to criticise the OP's background, but he could see this coming?

And the fact that he ‘doesn’t care’ clearly presents the manager as having racist intentions which he takes no issue with.


Again, why can you say this definitively? Were you in the manager's head? Did you know his intention? Why couldn't the manager 'not care' because he's not bothered about someone playing a race card, when in fact they're intending to criticise something else?


When you are criticising a non-white person for their race being arrogant, please don’t use ‘victim mentality’ because it is just pure racism.


You're playing a race card here, ironically.
As has been pointed out by numerous people in this thread, there isn't enough information to decide. "I don't know if this is racist" could mean he's talking about race, or it could mean 'I don't know if this will be perceived as racist'.

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