Quote:
Originally posted by Sistermadly
Ooh.. this one is fresh for me.... I take it personally when a black woman speaks her mind about something, and suddenly it's taken as 'attitude'.
It happens that I'm the only black woman in my entire building - heck, in my entire division, so of course, I'm the only one on my immediate team. I had a disagreement with one woman (non-black, of course) about a project I was helping her with, and when I backed away, I told our supervisor that it would probably be better if we didn't work on any projects together until we got to know each other better, and could have a better feel for each other's working styles.
Well. You know what happened. 
Suddenly, people thought I was "angry" and "confrontational", and thought it was such a HUGE deal that I mentioned the incident to the supervisor! Even when I told them repeatedly that I wasn't mad, people still walked around like they were on eggshells for about a week and a half! A sister can't speak her mind without people thinking it's an attitude thing! 
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Sistermadly--
The thing is, "THEY" say stuff like, "you're not a team player" that further gets ingrained into your psyche when those "silly folks" act stupid...
And when they see it "gets" to you in "that way"--that is when they've got you pigeonholed...
How do you get out the box?
Well, I say turnabout is fair play... This is the business world... So, turn it back right on the folks asking the stupid questions about you speaking your mind on things you know to be correct... And use the "business lingo" in your field that downplays that "helpless innocent" person "THEY" think you've devoured... Like, words such as "incompentent" or "insubordinate" are the "recordable" words that happen to get entered into folks memory files and banks... Hmmmm....
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How I got over my hump...
Well, pursue a Ph.D. in ANYTHING that "WE" are not suppose to even fathom being interested in...
I've heard all kinds of stupid comments made by colleagues and superiors regarding my race...
Usually, if I don't allow myself to get riled up and hear the fallacy of their thought process, then I have nailed them and point it out... Where they see just how stupid their comments to me were...
Then, I have to take aerobics and other things to relieve the stress of keeping my mouth shut for ignorance...
You have to have a sordid sense of pleasure to endure lunacy frothing from bigots mouths... You just have to do it that way or else you will be fighting everybody in the defense position... Unfortunately, that's the way the world is, right now... I dunno if it will ever change... But that's the way it is in my world...
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