La Racisme: Follow Up
Keifer emailed me earlier this week, asking if we could have lunch. Mind you, I had already been talked to by Hatchet Face about the incident. He wanted to guage my true reaction to the whole thing, partly on the lawsuit front and partly on the "concern for coworkers, and I had a friend in college who had a similar experience" and so on front. It was vaguely tense and somewhat forced, like a blind date, which was odd for me. After all the situation was out in the open and I'd pretty much said my peice and put it all behind me. I had hoped for the same amount of openness on the part of Keifer Sutherland, but no. Instead we talked synchrotrons, siblings and the joys of dating (mostly the lack of joy on that front). As lunch began to wind down I took pity on the poor sap and said, "Look man, we're ok. You didn't know and now you do and you're not going to do that again, so let's just relax, eh?" It didn't do much good, but served to calm things down a wee bit before heading back to work.
Comments
Every time I see the Kermit the Frog commercial for the new Ford Escape Hybrid, I lament the loss of you from the valley I live in Mo.
Ginger agrees.
Posted by: iain | February 9, 2006 2:45 PM
I thought that very same thing ... I also wish Jim Henson were still alive. Stupid strep throat.
Posted by: Lo Fat Mo | February 9, 2006 3:21 PM
I got into a discussion with Libby about the whole "Coon's Age" fiasco. Being a Southerner, I was shocked to learn of the racist implications, because I had never understood it that way, and I was outraged.
Lib confirmed my initial understanding that 'a coon's age' was related to raccoons, though the term 'coon' is also derogatory.
So I looked it up. Started with Wikipedia which was vague stating that the phrase was not in use because it was 'mistakenly considered racist'.
Then went with ol' reliable Google. Found this and this which shed interesting light on the evolution of the term.
But now I beg the question - if the phrase is "mistakenly considered racist", could it not be wielded with racist intention? And is that what the dude did?
Hoping the tension ends soon...
Posted by: boegle | February 16, 2006 9:24 AM
Boegle, tension is over and life is back to normal. I don't think the whole thing was meant maliciously it just caught me off guard is all. This isn't like the case of the Washington DC bureaucrat who was upbraided for using the term "niggardly" in a budget meeting.
I'm glad Libs did the research with you, though as we know she's not the most reliable of sources [I kid!].
Posted by: Lo Fat Mo | February 16, 2006 11:27 PM
At the risk of beating a dead horse:
It appears that this is almost exactly like the "niggardly" case -- neither expression has a racist etymology, and the Washington staffer used it correctly (and was rehired). The only difference might be that since we don't know the contents of your coworker's mind, we don't know whether he actually thinks that "coon" in that context refers to a black person. If he does think that then his remark was racist, but if he thought that "coon" actually referred to a raccoon or (as is most likely) he didn't have any specific semantics associated with the individual parts of the idiom but simply understood the idiom to mean "a long time", then the misunderstanding (though unintentional) was yours and if anything, *you* owe *him* an apology. An uncomfortable situation all around.
Posted by: the ler | February 17, 2006 10:43 AM
I just got into a sort of weird nightmarish fever over it all. I have had moments at jobs where all the blood pours from my face into my stomach.
(insert wavy screen effect)
Once my female boss - at the onset of my new job after being unemployed a year and a half after the DCB (dot com bust) - told me she'd had a dream about me. And then she proceeded to go into graphic detail about how she commanded me to go down on her in the dream, etc. etc.
I can't really explain the debth of the horrors I experienced...and the deep sadness of knowing that I would have to dodge those spirit shredding bullets for a while until I could get enough experience under my belt to move on and stay in my career. Dark times.
In retrospect, I should have made an HR case of it. But the head of HR was the devil.
Jeezus. I can't believe I stayed there 3 years...
(insert wavy screen effect)
I just hope you aren't in a f***ed up situation. Glad to hear the tension has passed. I'm still putting pomade in my fur.
I missed Ranger Rick's post - so realized after posting that I was redundant. Sorry bout that.
I dig your blog.
Oh and by-the-way - please feel free to come see us in Oakland, ok? Dinner or something.
Posted by: boegle | February 17, 2006 7:26 PM
I certainly don't owe him anything, although I did clear the air and we are on good terms now. I am certainly over the whole thing.
Beogle, your boss's dream has concerned us all and I hope to never never have to hear that sort of thing ...
Posted by: Lo Fat Mo | February 17, 2006 10:23 PM
Mo, you are getting soft at your old age.
The least thing you could have done was to put him on the "list".
Posted by: tian | March 11, 2006 10:56 PM
Holy crap! Tian has graced us with his presence. My panda friend you are too right, I am definitely getting soft. What happened to the angry Lo Fat Mo?
Posted by: Lo Fat Mo | March 12, 2006 1:38 AM