My racism post..... What's the deal
Mar 10, 2024
But basically, I had a customer, while I was still working at the bank.
My branch at the time was in a very old part of Edmonton. And what this means is that a lot of the people in this neighbourhood have been there for years, in their senior years at this point.
This particular lady actually went up to one of my customer service representatives, or CSRs, and asked if there was someone that she could talk to that was “not Filipino.”
FYI, I was the only “Filipino” that worked at my branch at the time.
We had a very diverse staff at the time, i.e., a few Asian Canadians.
The CSR at the time basically ignored that question and asked if there was anything he could do for her at that moment.
When the client insisted she talked to someone who was “white”, he insisted to her that was not nice. The client insisted that she had money in the bank and she had every right to deal with anyone she wanted.
This was not the only time I faced racism in the workplace.
The whole question about racism in the workplace is not necessarily to stop people from being racist, because you know, what, people are going to be who they are.
And we can't necessarily judge them because they are who they are, they think based from their background and from what they were taught.
And I guess how we choose to deal with it is ultimately up to us. We can't control who we deal with.
And so the question is how are you going to deal with it? How are you going to deal with being discriminated against or, you know, offensive remarks like that?
What matters is how my team feels. It mattered to me how they were going to react, or how they're going to feel about racist comments like that. It mattered to me, because in the end it's in the workplace.
The question was, can we turn away clients if they discriminate or offend US?
Will my company back me?
And this person, whether she had money in the bank, or millions in the bank, will my employer support me?
What mattered to me was, was that my staff knew that I would back them 100% if they felt discriminated against or offended by anybody.
The world's not perfect, and neither are we.
But it's how we react to this imperfection that really determines how we want to live our life.
And don't be the person that necessarily reacts.
Be the person that responds, and maybe be that leader who will help inspire others to act in the right way.