I could have just as easily titled this piece, “Is it racism if nobody complains?”. Douglas Maughan, British Airways (BA) pilot claims there’s been a culture of casual racism at BA for some time now against Asians. He published his thoughts in the staff newsletter, and was later abused for making his observations on the matter known. Maughan refers to the company culture as “institutional racism“, but I personally call it the “old boys club“. And it doesn’t just affect Asians, it affects almost any race, culture, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Maughan took a stand and I applaud him for it, but not enough of us do so in our daily lives.
A former partner of mine, used to work with a very racist individual. While my partner was Caucasian, I was of course gay and Asian. His workplace was a typical one, with office politics and water cooler humor. The individual in question liked to tell jokes that were offensive to about every minority imaginable. No one else in the office dared to confront him, as he was fairly highly placed in the organization, but my other half would make up something appropriate as a response to the man’s joke. For example if the joke were about an African-American, his response would be something like, “Oh that’s a good one, I’ll have to tell it to my wife Lakeisha”. Personally, I thought his responses were almost as bad as the jokes that were being told, but at the very least, he was trying to alert every one else in the room that those types of jokes weren’t acceptable.
I realize many of us make jokes as a response to offensive comments, like my partner because we aren’t comfortable with confronting the racism directly. But I’m sure if you didn’t know my partner, you might have mistaken his response as an insulting one. And there might have been someone present who might have taken just as much offense to his response as to the joke.
Maughan took a stand, and as a result was sent anonymous condemning messages and phone calls, which made his job extremely difficult. He’s fighting back by suing for discrimination, but his ordeal probably makes many of us who would have said something just as uneasy about speaking up the next time we hear an offensive remark or joke. That’s the unfortunate part of this story, and a reminder to the rest of us to speak up the next time we hear something offensive, as there’s many more who won’t.
(Photo by Bruno Vincent/Getty Images)
What next?
Other posts you may be interested in:
Recent Comments
- KFC vs. KGC: WTF???
- alienation: This is a great thread! I grew up eating Kentucky Fried Chicken. My family would make an effort to get it in East L.A., over by the King Cole Pizza. It was way better than the Kentucky Fried over in MPK and up in SG. I...
- Proof that Russell of Disney/Pixar’s Up is Asian: The Color Scripts
- Daul Kim: One Sassy ‘n Smart Bitch
- Najib: I wonder what is going on with this girl. She has been fooled into this simulacrum, and what she thought was real is not real at all.
- Mending Broken Glass: Khmer Rouge History Now to be Taught in Cambodia
- kbok: it may seem shocking to other people that kids don’t believe their elders when hearing about khmer rouge atrocities, but if your mother told you that soldiers shot at her, pushing her off a mountain and into landmine paths...
- Chinese Adoptees: Stolen or Abandoned?
- Dan: CSLI, I think my previous comment stated that I “hope” not “should”. It was not meant to belittle anyone and yes I can imagine just like most people, adopted or not. Though the effect will not be the same as...
- Obama Bows to Emperor Akihito
- JC: @ Eric: Not only that, he’s half brother lives in China and is married to a Chinese woman. There’s a lot of Asian in his family
- Yahoo! Games Writer Freaks Out Over Nintendo DS Dating Simulations
- JC: This guy knows next to nothing about Otaku culture and dare to write about Japanese games. It’s just another ignorant white person making self-righteous judgment calls against another part of Asian culture. He’s just...
Recent Events
- [Nov 3] NORTHERN CA: Intro to Movietelling (Neo-Benshi) with Dennis Somera
- [Nov 14] SOUTHERN CA: Grace Kim & the Spiders From Mars
- [Nov 20] NORTHERN CA: CATS 9th Annual Asian Comedy Night starring 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors
- [Nov 21] SOUTHERN CA: BANANA: Where Infamous Asian-American Bloggers Unite to Chop It Up
- [Nov 22] TORONTO: S.M. Global Audition
4 Comments to “British Airways and Casual Racism”
mitsuru_mitsuru wrote:
damn. well, i'm glad that i'm not the only one who confronts 'casual' racism head on and gets shit for it. good on Maughan. i have personally never really found comedy an affective way of addressing racism. i say, if it isn't scaring them, it's not working.
what i find more disturbing than the many others who won't speak up when we hear something racist, is that fact that many of us agree with the racist statements being made about/for us. a good example of this disappointing and dangerous phenomenon can be found in the myriad of pro-banana comments on teresa's post, http://www.8asians.com/2009/05/23/no-welcome-ma...
Posted on 13-Jun-09 at 12:00 am | Permalink
Kevin Lee wrote:
That's inherently the problem with institutionalized racism; it becomes a norm accepted by the community where challenging it becomes a greater “phenomenon” so to speak that people start criticizing you for doing the right thing.
It's always the little things too; like dog eating jokes, a “that's so gay”, or something about acting like or throwing like a girl.
Then you start touching territory where people do it mindlessly, knowing that on one level or another its wrong but think its such an insignificant action or that they, when it “matters”, will always be conscientious or aware to not offend… that they just blow off any sort of minor confrontation.
like telling someone to not say “gay” when they mean annoying or bad followed by a “yeah, but you know what I mean”
Props to both Maughan and your partner for doing what they do.
Posted on 15-Jun-09 at 8:00 am | Permalink
nemogbr wrote:
Good Luck to Maughan. Brave man.
I suppose, it would be easier to tackle blatant racism. It's right in your face.
If someone calls you using a pejorative term, I am quite within my rights to break their face…. Not so much when they would be your colleagues, I suppose, it becomes harder.
Posted on 16-Jun-09 at 2:38 am | Permalink
alistairwilliamson wrote:
But then it is always possible that Doug Maughan may have another reason for making these allegations. It may be possible that his previous disastrously unsuccessful attempts to achieve election to public office have decided the said gentleman to invent a story that is likely to generate publicity for him.
Posted on 11-Oct-09 at 10:42 am | Permalink
Post a Comment