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Banter or Bigotry? Casual Racism in the Workplace
The Azeem Rafiq racism case against his former employers Yorkshire cricket club and ex-England captain Michael Vaughan has been deliberated over the past week and comes to an end today.
Rafiq claimed there was a history of prejudice and racism within the club as many of the coaches and players casually used racist slurs against him and others and then the club failed to respond appropriately when he escalated it.
Whatever the result or whatever your stance on it, there are two things this whole case reminds me of.
The first is Maya Angelou’s famous quote:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Very relevant.
The second thing is a story from my days in the corporate world.
There used to be an ex-colleague of mine, quite an old-school bloke, the kind that had worked in the same role for 20-odd years. Part of the furniture. He’s the kind of guy once you got to know him, you would say is a ‘character’. In other words a little eccentric, with a very particular sense of humour.
When I joined the team, he after a short time, for some reason would call me the ‘Sultan’.
