As feminists and queers and queer feminists, the writers of this blog come up against a lot of societal resistance to our views - and the ways in which we live our lives.
But today at work I was lost for words at lunch time when someone started complaining about call centres and the 'Paki fucks you have to talk to.' 'I tell them to put someone Scottish on the phone so as I can understand them.'
What on earth can (or should) a person (with strong feelings against racism and discrimination of all kinds) say to this?
I want to hear your thoughts.
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Ouch.
ReplyDeleteThis is a difficult one. I think it's really important to challenge bigotry, because that's the only way that bigots will realise either that their views are Not On, or, at the very least, that their views are not the norm.
As for what to say...I'd say that "Paki fuck" straightforwardly insulting and racist, and there's no need to insult people if you want to express frustration with call centers. I'd also say that a great many Scottish-resident Pakistani people *are* Scottish. I'd also say that Scotland has a number of accents (and languages!), and some of them are easy for me to understand and some not, but it would be unacceptable for me to verbally abuse Scottish people about it. It's also say that because Scotland is multicultural and multilingual, so you can't expect everyone to have the same accent as you.
By the way, in some institutional environments, there are specific policies that deal with equality and diversity (as they say, in management-speak). Since it happened at your workplace, it might be worth finding out what your employer's policy is on this (if any), if they apply, and whether you think it would be more effective to communicate with the person directly, or to use the workplace policies.
Good luck, and glad you're speaking out about it.
--IP