hickle
Well-known member
This new woman at work asked me out of the blue today if I was Brazilian because my name sounded Brazilian to her. I explained that it wasn't and that my name is spelled the same in all the romance languages (this is true for both my given and surname). She then followed it up with "Oh some of our baby-sitters are Brazilian." I know it doesn't sound offensive by itself, but in the context, I felt like she was saying, "Are you Mexican? Because our help is Mexican, [and I see you as the help]". I'm not saying anything disparaging about either culture, but there is a huge Brazilian population around where I live. If I was Brazilian I'd be annoyed by the comparison between me and her baby-sitters, but since I'm not I'm merely annoyed because she's trying to draw parallels between me and her baby-sitters. I don't know anything about her baby-sitters, but I guarantee you I wouldn't baby-sit her kids.
This incident annoyed me and so I told other co-workers about it. I kind of feel like a tool for not saying anything to her directly at the time, but it was such a subtle slight that I couldn't really pinpoint it until I had thought about it.
This incident annoyed me and so I told other co-workers about it. I kind of feel like a tool for not saying anything to her directly at the time, but it was such a subtle slight that I couldn't really pinpoint it until I had thought about it.