OK, a little background...last Monday, I worked from home. Honestly, I just couldn't stand the idea of going into work, it was snowing, and P was off for MLK day....and everything I had to do was web based...so I fibbed about an upset stomach, but really, the thought of going to work was nauseating. So, 1/2 way thru the day, I get a forwarded junk email from our bookkeeper: She's around 50, divorced, white, the kind that puts the sticker on her bumper: "Keep the Christ in Christmas." Which is odd, cause she doesn't like that the really really religious guy who runs one of our presses prays in the lunchroom before lunch. She talks trash about him being uppity. So, I guess we can chalk her up to a hypocrite....
So this email, I've gotten similar anti-something emails from her in the past, quotes an article from Spain about how the Holocaust ruined the intellectual capital of Europe, cause then they felt bad and then let Muslims in. It cited 9/11, it cited Sirhan Sirhan etc etc etc. At some point, the email said that allowing Muslims into the Europe had brought "stupidity and ignorance" to Europe as none of them were willing to work hard to support themselves. So I emailed her back and said "OK, that's it. Do not email me junk like this anymore. This is random facts pulled together, and until you can explain away the 'anomalies' of the Unabomber, OK City etc etc etc, I don't want to hear it anymore." She emailed back..."Ok, sorry if I offended you (ok, email was ok so far), but sometimes you have to be forced to read the truth."
I went ballistic. I realized she had sent the original email to 3 customers at our biggest client. I forwarded the original email to my father to notify him that this was sent to customers. I emailed her back and said, "Change every word in this to 'Chinese' and 'Japan' for 'Muslim' and 'Europe' - then read it. You would be forwarding this commenting on how racist the Japanese are then, wouldn't you? If you want, I can prove just about anything, if I take #s and choice facts. What you are forwarding is racist, and I don't like you making our family's company look like it supports this. EVERY culture has good, bad and ugly. EVERY culture on this planet has contributed beautiful works of art, intellectual leaps, horrible atrocities and honorable people." She never responded.
So Thursday night, I'm down by my father's office. Mind you, we have a lot of hispanic workers, and a smattering of other ethnicities. They are looking for a part-time bookkeeper to help her out. Sooooo...I'm talking to him, and he drops two resumes on her desk. She said she gave him one to approve, he says ok, bring her in. Then he shows her the other one and says "This one has a lot of small business experience, let's interview this person too." She responds: "OK, but I can tell this person is a foreigner. Just from the resume, I can tell that." My Dad looks at her and says "This is one of the best written resumes we've gotten, and she's got the small business experience, so let's interview her too."
I'm not stupid, I know there are racist assholes out there....but, really? Really? In front of your boss, in front of the one that took you to task earlier in the week?? Really? That crazy obvious?
So, the first one we hired to help you - the white middle class woman who was so flaky that she decided the day before she was going to start that she didn't want to work here, and left you in a lurch, she's better because she can pass for a ghost?! WTF?
I just wanted to bitchslap her. And then I walked away, blushing from the embarrasment of association...
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