Why is it that people think it is okay to make very derogatory remarks about another race/ethnicity just because the person and I are of the same race/ethnicity? Do they really think that everyone in their race feels the same as they do? Do they think this is acceptable behavior? I guess so. This has happened several times to me at work, and it really bothers me. I enjoy my coworkers. I like most of them a lot. And the ones that I am closest to happen to be caucasian/US, caucasian/England, african/Ethiopian, African/Eritrean, Eastern Europe/Indian (not Native American, INDIAN), pacific islander/Filipina, african/Nigerian, and asian/cambodian, vietnamese, chinese, japanese, and thailand. I KNOW these people. I work with these people on a daily basis, and really like them. So when ANY issue comes up with a patient about another nurse or support person, I am already more likely to take the hospital person's side over the patient. But so many of these caucasian patients feel like they can make rude, derogatory remarks about other races and it is okay, since we are both caucasian. Okay, here it is officially: It is not okay!
Off of that subject for now, but still irritated. IRRITATED. I feel let down. It is always patients that I like, that I have developed some rapport with that do this. Never the icky ones that you don't like, it is always one that you have been joking around with and enjoying taking care of. That makes it worse. Now, I don't want to go back in there, and I told the charge nurse and we are trying to keep things easy for any non-US/caucasian person/people with accents who might come across this guy. Not for HIS sake, since he has made that pretty clear that he would prefer things that way, but for the sake of the people with accents who are not caucasian, so THEY don't have to put up with HIM. I have seen debates going around about some KKK guy in the south that wanted only white staff to work with him, and was that okay or not okay and was that discriminating against the staff who were not white, or was that protecting them, etc. And here it is in MY hospital in a slightly different form. Sucks.
2 comments:
For the sake of discussion.. and to clear things up... if you were born in America... you are American, right? Regardless of your ethnicity... American... Right?... Like, my ancestors are Irish / English,etc. I'm not an "Irish American" or an " English American"... I'm just American... is this not true? Now, can I only say this because I am Caucasion? Or, can any " color" of person say this? I would think ANYONE BORN IN AMERICA WOULD BE JUST PLAIN AMERICAN... right? or no? Now this query is for educational purposes only.. not to start a fight, etc.
US, I would say, not "american", because someone from Mexico is american-central america, canadians are americans-north america. The US tends to say "american" when talking about US people, but others also fit this category. People born in the US are US citizens. Other people who come here from whatever country at whatever age are US residents or legal aliens or a variety of other things. It would be nice if ANYONE born here could just claim "american" (if we go back to that US thing), but the way things are now, Caucasians, or people of western european descent are called "americans", but people of asian descent are called asian-american or chinese-, japanese- etc american, people of african descent are african-american, and those from latin countries are cuban-american, puerto rican-american, etc. People don't/won't NOT class someone of color, either as a -american or as a 'foreigner', if they have an accent. This is true of some people of color who have chosen to embrace their ethnicity/roots, however distant their link to another country is. Also, some caucasian-americans classify people this way. It is just the way it is. But this particular guy today was making very rude skin color related jokes that were entirely inappropriate in any conversation with anyone (I would hope), so this is slightly off topic, but still interesting. No fight here, I am glad you asked.
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