Stories From Our Community
About Language, Stereotypes, & Communication

 

1. A committee of different races is interviewing a potential employee. The candidate is African-American, and in the course of asking a question, a white committee member says, “Now, of course, you are extremely well-spoken...” only to get a dead silence from the candidate AND the co-interviewers. The white committee member realizes she has just said something really, really, wrong. Later, after the candidate leaves, the other committee members explain that the phrase “well-spoken” is particularly offensive to African-Americans because it sounds like an expression of surprise that an African-American can be articulate.

2. An African-American high school student in her first days of ninth grade asks the security guard, also African-American, how to find the gym. The guard answers, then asks the student if she could come back by the security desk in ten minutes. A little baffled, the girl agrees. She returns, and there is a second security guard with the first one. The second guard is also African-American. The first security guard says, "There she is. Say something for my friend. I want him to hear you talk." The girl is really flabbergasted now, but says something, and then the first guard says to his friend, "See! What did I tell you? Did you ever hear anybody black talk like that?"
Later, the girl and her mother had a long talk about code switching.

3. A brand new college graduate was working for an insurance company. She was at lunch chatting with a co-worker, who asked me, “Where are your parents from?”
She thought it was an odd question, but told him Barbados.
He then got this ah ha look on his face like the puzzle was finally solved and said, "I knew you were from somewhere else! You are just different from other Black people I have met. You are so smart and articulate."
He thought he was paying a compliment, but she thought it was one of the most offensive comments anyone had ever said to her directly.

 

 

4. A business consultant, African-American, is having a phone conversation with someone he hasn’t met. The consultant is told that the firm they are discussing is going to be bought by another firm. The consultant asks how the other man knows this, and the other man says, “I just heard it from so-and-so. We were talking like a couple of good ol’ white boys like you and I..”
The business consultant at first didn’t believe what he was hearing. Finally, he said, “Well maybe you two are white but I am not.”
The other man didn’t miss a beat and went on with the conversation.

5. An African-American professional is working at her desk. Her white boss comes barging in and says, “Hey, I’m in a really big hurry– you have to help me out here. I need to know what you black people are calling yourselves these days.” To which she responds, “Well, I don’t know what Black People are ALL calling themselves these days, but I call myself African-American.”

6. A planning firm wants to reach out to a community of color in their business model. They hire a new planner, Latino. His only job is to “reach out to the community.”

7. Same firm: after the Latino employee has been part of the team for a while, he comes up with a really outstanding idea. After some weeks of developing the idea, the team is assigned jobs: white team members are assigned to pitch the idea to the mayor; to design the web page and brochure; to start hiring more consultants. The Latino who had the idea is assigned to reach out to the community.

8. A new teacher, white, has just begun working in the South Bronx. Most of the students are either African-American or Hispanic. The kids, eighth graders, are all sitting back quietly, waiting to see what the new teacher will be like. The new teacher says a few things, and then says, “And for homework, I’m going to give you people–“
And the kids immediately show by their body language that something bad has happened: they whisper, frown, adjust themselves in their seats so that they appear angry and defiant.
The new teacher is aghast: what just happened? Why had the neutral to polite behavior suddenly turned rebellious?
To the teacher’s great good luck, there is one outspoken girl who calls out, “Who do you mean You People? We don’t like to be called You People!”
Which allows the teacher to apologize and lead a discussion about words people like and don’t like to be called. A teaching moment...

9. That same teacher remembers her father, a high school principal in a small town south of the Mason-Dixon line. He would stand in from of an auditorium of rowdy high school students, almost all white, and shout, “Okay, you people, I’m waiting!” And the crowd would become quite and respectful....

10. A student of color is meeting with his guidance counselor. He has been making excellent grades and has high aspirations for getting a scholarship to a good college. The guidance counselor suggests that he might want to think about going to the local community college.

11. In a mixed race high school, some classes still tend to be majority of one race or another. In on particular class, every single student was African-American. After the mid-term test, the white teacher handed back the papers. Several of the students whooped with delight at their A’s and A minuses. Others were more quietly satisfied. But one student slammed down the paper, then got up and walked up to the teacher’s desk. “You failed me!” the student cried.
“Yes,” said the teacher. “You got an F.”
“You gave me that grade because you don’t like me!”said the student. “The Only reason you gave me this grade is because I’m black.” The teacher looked around the room and said, “Yes, but look around you– students who received A’s, B’s and C’s are black too! “
The kid said, “Well, then, you just don’t like me!”

12. A white woman walks past a black teenage boy wearing a white tee shirt. She clutches her pocket book close to her side.

13. An African-American walks into a meeting where everyone is white. .All conversation comes to a standstill.