I work at a grocery store and was helping bag fora coworker. A kid about 16 years old walk pass my coworker. He was playing some rap music on his phone out kid. My coworker then said that the kid was”acting black”. I didn’t say anything due to a customer being right there. The customer left and my manger came to the line cause we all like to talk to each other. My coworker then ask my manger if he was right that kids act black. My manger then agree with him and I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I said how do you act a skin color? I repeated myself a good ten times cause they were ignoring me. My coworker said that he old school and that he’s allowed to say it. I said no that racist you can’t act a color. He then said I knew what he meant and then my manger said that it wasn’t racist. I walk away to go check out a customer and after I check out. My coworker came to my line since I was talking to my friend. My coworker then says did you see how offensive he acted. I said I wasn’t being offensive that’s racist you can’t say stuff like that. He then said that im being sensitive and need to grow up.
They are racist!
NTA congrats on not being racist like half of your work apparently is. I would suggest find somewhere new and report to corporate. Corporate would cut them off like a rotting limb to protect the company first. If that customer heard it and wanted to go scorch earth they could of and so could that kid.
NTA and if it happens again I’d contact HR.
I would contact them now.
OP: NTA
NTA. Code words for being racist: “you’re being too sensitive” and “that’s just the way it is.”
The grammar makes this difficult to read.
NTA
Regardless of how “racist” the remark is, you’re right that it makes no sense. Listening to a black artist doesn’t mean they are “acting black”. What they MEANT is that they are annoyed about white guys listening to rap and acting like a “gangsta” because that’s a “black people thing”. They probably don’t even realize that their opinion means their view of black people is negative.
“i don’t like rap and it’s a shame young people are into it” is really what they should be expressing. Attaching race to it makes them racially biased.
Some people don’t realize they’re as biased as they are until they’re called out and a picture is drawn for them. So no, you’re NTA.
There are better ways than others to call someone out. But definitely call them out
“That comment was mighty white of you.”
Uno Reverse their shizz.
NTA by a million miles.
NTA. that’s like if a black person was listening to country or something and someone says “he’s trying to act white” it’s just weird to say shi like that. theyres white rappers and black rappers. and theyres black country singers and white country singers. either way, everyone has their own taste in music and saying that it means your acting black is just straight up weird
People who say “I’m just old school”, “I didn’t mean it like that” and “you’re” just being sensitive” are almost always being offensive assholes in some way. I will say I don’t think it’s great manners to play music out loud instead of using headphones, no matter the genre. But calling it “black” behavior just because the music was rap is rude racist.
I mean, I kinda get what he means. As a black man, black people often tell other black people that they’re “acting white” when they do something we either positively or negatively associate with white people. A few years ago I worked at all call center where 99% of the employees were black, from the OM all the way down to us CSR’s. There was this one guy who would go outside on his break and listen to rock and roll in his car, all my coworkers made fun of him behind his back for “acting white”
My point is, almost all stereotypes are rooted in some truth, whether they’re positive or negative.
Are they good for society in any way? NO. Should we all try to keep our stereotypes to ourselves? I’d say YES. But the truth is we all stereotype people whether it be consciously or unconsciously. I agree that the statement your coworker made wasn’t a “good” thing to say. But saying something distasteful doesn’t automatically make him some evil bigot, most humans are more complex than that.
Rap is pretty main stream so you could had at least corrected him on that. However, maybe use a different word like prejudice than racism, because if he knows his words, he can fight back and said he wasn’t being racist because he was not saying one race is better than the other.