Also, the name of the most recent male monarch, wasn’t it?
Moderator Action
This is more opinion than factual.
Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
Their behavior toward you is racist. Calling you “boy” is a huge racial insult. Refusing to listen to you is a huge insult.
Yes – but I get the feeling that he (George VI) was universally pretty popular: kept his post and acted staunchly throughout World War II, despite not being naturally well equipped to be king (it was meant to have been his elder brother, but he ended up side-stepping the job).
I have heard of many black people named George. So I don’t think it’s that kind of racist.
It certainly could be racist, however, providing there was something known to these people - like an “inside joke” of some kind.
When I was in high school, some of us had an “inside joke” where we called people “Horace” if we meant to denegrate them.
Do you remember the Star Trek TOS episode where there were a bunch of strange young people who tried to hijack the space ship and take them to a planet named Eden?
Didn’t they have a similar inside joke where they called people who were rigid bureaucrats by some first name that they recognized as meaning they were rigid in their outlook? It wasn’t “Horace”. But it was something similar that they considered to be an insult.
Remember?
Oh yes! It was “Herbert”.
Yes, it is racist. Sir-Mix-A-Lot has this one covered in the other direction.
"[SPOKEN]
What you pullin’ me over fo’ mistuh offi-suh?
I’ll be askin’ the questions Leroy.
My name ain’t Leroy, man.
Heh, all right Jerome, outta the car.
Man, why I gotta be Jerome man? Why can’t I be Tommy or Philbert or something?
Just put your hands on the hood Muhammed"
If it was me, I would reply back by changing their name to something like the above.
We reach.
My name is George, and I’ve never heard of it being either a stereotypical white name or being used in a racist context.
Do you by any chance resemble or act like George Costanza, from Seinfeld?
If I were being mocked with the name, that would be the first reference that would come to mind.
It goes back to the railroads. Porters (who were generally black) were often called George interchangeably by passengers.
But it could be something else. George is slang among pilots for the autopilot system: a pilot will say something like “George is flying the plane”. In New Zealand, it’s a derogatory slang term for the native Maori. And apparently some women use it as a slang term for their period: “George is visiting me this week.” Admittedly none of these seem likely.
Maybe it’s just an inside joke at that particular business. It could be the last white temp there before the OP was called George.
Costanza? Zimmerman?
You’re all Goerges to me!
I’ve never heard of George being used that way, and I feel like we’re not getting the whole story here. What were you arguing about?
I’m guessing he would find out what black people already know - the consequences of racism are a lot higher when you’re not in the majority.
“George” used to be an all-purpose name white men would call black men who were Pullman porters. That was a moderately racist practice. Don’t know if his use of it was informed by that, or if it was prompted by racism on his part, or anger at perceived racism on your part, or if it was just funny for some reason you didn’t pick up on and tell us about.
I don’t resemble George Costanza at all. He’s probably too young to really know who George Costanza is anyways so I doubt he was refering to him. He basically called me George in a snobby kind of way and it’s one of those things where you know he meant it as a insult. I’m not the type to make a big deal over this, I’m just curious on why he would call me George. I wasn’t sure if George is some type of new slang or something.
I’m Black.
I have never called anyone White “George.”
If I were attempting to be racist, I wouldn’t use the name “George” to express my racist thoughts.
It’s probably not meant to be racist as much as it was/is to be derisive.
I would suggest ignoring it and they’ll soon grow tired of the “joke.”
On a side note: I have been called by the name of another Black male when I was one of the few Black males in that specific environment.
Now that I considered to be racist.
True; maybe they think you’re a prince!
:dubious:
It’s a meat packing company, we were arguing about how to run the line more efficient. It was a silly argument. Really there’s not much more to the story. This guy does seem to get mad when the line speeds up and I think he was taking his frustration out on me. I do feel me and him are two of the better workers on the line but since every other worker is black, I kinda think he used me as a scapegoat.
I think the simplest explanation is that the guy you argued with often argued with a former employee named George.
Everyone else got the joke but the George in question had gone before you got there.
It is possible to dislike someone for reasons other than their race.
We are temps. We all started on the same day. I shoulda stated this before.