Well, I admit I don’t really “get” you people either. Why do you have to act so different all the time? Why can’t you just fit in like everyone else? It’d be so much easier for everyone to get along if you didn’t make such a big deal out of not being normal.
When I say “you people,” I of course mean “bowlegged people.”
Not snarky at all, I thought it was a good suggestion. 
I assume “oatmeal above her eyebrows” is another way of saying “mush for brains.”
And about the toasters: Didn’t you know that homosexuals receive a toaster as an incentive when they successfully convert someone?
I bet that’s the root of the problem here. I’m from a very small farming community which was pretty much racially pure. I doubt it’s a hotbed for the KKK or anything like that, just that there weren’t that many minorities around. I know there was one Puerto Rican family for a while because their daugher was in my class but that was about it. Until I was 11-years-old the only real contact I had with any members of a minority group other than that Puerto Rican girl was when I took swimming lessons in the Kankakee Y.
I think what might be going on with your admin. assistant is that she may have also had minimal contact with minorities during her childhood. She probably picked up the racist words from who-knows-where, nobody bothered to correct her, and the people who would have been offended by those words weren’t usually around.
I don’t remember hearing any of my family or frieinds using racial slurs when I was a kid. “All in the Family” was pretty much the only place I could have picked up such language, it’s possible that my parents used Archie as an example of what not to say.
When I was growing up (early 60’s), the only black people I saw were rioting on TV.
Kinda gave me an inaccurate picture.
Then we moved to a small town just over the hill from Berkely, and the only black people I saw were driving the garbage trucks.
Kinda reinforced the inaccurate picture.
I remember being fairly surprised when they started showing black people on TV, and they weren’t violent trash collectors. Violent, maybe, trash collectors, sure, but not both.
Nobody intentionally deluded me, but I ended up deluded just the same. Took a while to get past that.
Oh, and jwhee–the toaster oven bit came from the episode of Ellen where she came out; Laura Dern, her first girlfriend, pointed out that if she converted one more, she’d get her toaster oven. At the end of the show, she’s sitting in a diner when a delivery guy walks up, has her sign something, and hands her a toaster oven…
I don’t know about the Lesbianism, but I’m pretty sure the Asian-ness is catching… My bf drives Civics, wears horrible orange pants and has dragon-print underwear.:smack:
:Shakes head:
I worked with a woman who used the word, “Darkies”.
“Oh, Miss Scarlett! Miss Scarlett! I don’t know nuthin’ ‘bout folks callin’ us ‘Darkies’ in the 21st century!”
Christ.
Oatmeal above her eyebrows: Think inside the skull, not outside.
Toaster oven: This is a bit more subtle, and almost an “in” joke around here.* When confronted with the Falwellian-type canard that homosexuals “recruit” straights into the “lifestyle,” it’s a well-worn joke to embrace the lie and pretend that it’s the truth. Embellishing that, the joke goes on to pretend that, just like banks used to give out small appliances to people who opened new accounts, the gay community welcomes new recruits with the gift of a new toaster (or, in this case, toaster oven. Next year, it might be fondue sets).
And don’t worry about looking ignorant by asking a question. Questions are the first step in the cure.
*sorry if my explanation ghetto-izes this joke to the SDMB. I’ve never encountered it anywhere else.
You are correct. You know, I thought that expression was a bit more popular than it now seems to be…
Well, I guess I’m long-winded, pedantic, and late.
Hat Trick!
::sniff:: ::sniff::
I smell a lawsuit!!
reminds me of the time my sister asked me what my son (then 8 years old) was going to do for the summer, and I replied that he was participating in a YWCA summer camp.
she said “But I thought that was for inner city children”.
to which I answered : which word doesn’t apply?
You sound way too forgiving and nice. I can’t imagine that in this day and age that people can be unaware of basic decency concerning cultural and racial diversity.
Has she been in a city very long? It sounds like she hatched full-grown in an Appalachian coal mine back in the 40s.
Unless she’s been living under a rock for the past 20 years, she can’t possibly have no idea that the sorts of things she says are offensive.
I agree with other posters, tell HR, for her good as well as for other employees in your company.
well, i’ve been needing a toaster oven for the past 2 years or so. do i just have to sleep with a woman, or give up men all together?
Hey! Some of my finest relations spent a lot of time in Appalachian coal mines in the 40s.
And they never used the term “niglets.” Or for that matter, the meaningful “you people” or the whispered “those women.”
Maybe just kindly point out that “My goodness, co-worker, if I didn’t know you better I’d be really hurt by that.” Eventually maybe a seed of common sense will take root.
Wow! I’ve never been called forgiving and nice - let alone too forgiving and nice!
I’ll have a talk with her first. Part of the reason why I’m not going immediately to HR is simply because I think there is another solution that will be just as effective - namely, speaking with her myself and with a coworker. My goal here isn’t to punish her - it’s to have the behavior stop. If this can be done with a conversation, I’m more likely to do that.
Perhaps I’m overly practical in this situation. I’m a fairly solution oriented person and my goal is to be effective here - which I believe I can be with a conversation. I am not unaware of the legal consequences to her comments - I practice employment law. I guess I’m just not ready to lop off her head when a slap on the wrists will do.
Tibs.
Someone here said they couldn’t believe that someone could be blind to the political correctness and enlightenment that has taken place over the last 20 years. Sad to say, but I know people who don’t watch or read the news because “it’s depressing”. They don’t read books. They get their entire exposure to the world from sitcoms and soap operas. My guess is your co-worker is one of “those” people.
Ah, now you see, I thought you got a toaster for becoming a lesbian yourself. Sort of how you get an electric blanket for switching to a new bank.
And niglet? This is a word? Hmph, learn sumpin’ new every day.
I know what you mean, we also have an assistant here who says stupid things and is completely unaware of it. She is not an evil person, either, she is just very ignorant.
The other day we were discussing the elevated alert status when it changed to orange, and she wondered “how they knew when to elevate it.” I replied that it was a variety of things, like what kind of information the government has and how specific it is, and if they hear lots of “chatter” from suspected groups among other warning signs something might be about to happen. She replied that she believed it had gotten to the point where “we should just round everybody up that looks like they are from there (meaning the Middle East) and keep an eye on them for a while.” I thought she was kidding, or at least exaggerating, so I replied, “you mean like some sort of camp?” thinking she would get the reference and say, no, of course she didn’t mean anything like that. Instead she says, without a trace of irony, “yeah.”
I was silent for a minute, waiting for her to register what she had just said, and finally replied, “you know, we tried something like that during WWII and it didn’t go over too well.” She looked at me like she had no idea what I was talking about.
I agree 100%.
Why would anyone go to HR before talking to her?