Houston Chronicle columnist Randy Cohen, in his August 1, 2009 On Ethics column, wrote an article commenting on a query by a general contractor whose workplace has been infected by one of his contractor’s employees: this worker makes racist statements, and when confronted by another employee gets very volatile (“almost violent”) and defends his or her own actions by saying that he/she has the right of free speech.

Since this is probably a common experience by many in the workplace, it’s fitting to ask how far does free speech go in what people say on the job in a public setting? The employer and boss has the right, in fact, is under the legal precedent of insuring that all workers can work in a safe environment free of racialized harassment. How does one resist this negative kind of hate speech, and interrupt this behavior from occurring?

Perhaps the simplest way to put it is that just because we have freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution, this doesn’t give someone the right to walk into a crowded theatre and yell in a blood-curdling wail, “Get out quickly, the theatre is on fire! Run for the exits!” This, where no fire actually exists. Would this kind of speech promote safety and health or would it intensify the possibility of the patrons getting hurt in the rush to get out of the theatre? Certainly, there is an ethical responsibility to not create fake scenarios so that more people might be injured in the confusion that would follow.

On-the-job discrimination rears its ugly head at various times, but as cultural competency has increased overall in our society, it’s harder and harder for people with racist, and an emotional commitment to ignorance perceptual lens to go unchallenged, and the possibility for discriminatory practice is more easily observed. The perpetrators may be fired for propagating racist auras around their person and into the air space of co-workers.

A personal example illustrates this well. Several years ago in my workplace, a co-worker who seemed to have many personal issues finally showed them in a very aggressive way, and I was the main target. One day as I was setting up some tables, he said angrily, “Hey, what are doing man? Those are my tables.” My retort back to him was, “I don’t see your name on them.” The man went off on me, yelling, and walking towards me in an intimidating way. I was sure he was going to assault me. He began yelling words at me that didn’t make much sense, and told me that when he saw me outside of the work place, on the street, he would get even with my by some kind of bodily injury.

By this time, security had been called, and they escorted him off the premises. I was asked to tell about the incident to others in management, and the police came to the premises to file a report against this hostile employee. My point here is that most companies won’t tolerate this kind of hostile action by one employee against another. In some places, the charge is called a “terroristic assault.” So most people have zero tolerance for these kinds of actions towards others in the workplace.

There are strategies we can take preventatively as well as following anti-discriminatory polices that the company already has in place. If you aren’t aware of these within your own workplace, take the personal responsibility to find out. Another way to say this is take your responsibility seriously to interrupt racism, sexism, able-ism, cultural or religious racism, heterosexism, discrimination, etc. wherever you see it going down. Hate speech flourishes where there is silence and denial. Hate speech always flows to the lowest place because there’s not any hint of truthful compassion to stop it. Make it a priority for your place of work to be a place where these kinds of discriminatory behaviors simply can’t live or gain momentum.

If someone is using hate speech, racial slurs or racial jokes, one simple way to interrupt them is to tell the person, “Please don’t communicate this way in my presence.” Another one is “No in my presence, please.” Not here, and not now. If you happen to be European American and a white co-worker is using negative innuendos or racialized jokes on you, you might think about responding by saying, “Why are you telling me these things, and automatically expecting that I am just like you? Why are expecting me to agree with you? Is it just because I’m a white person?” These sorts of questions will initially be a switch from the place of an emotional commitment to ignorance. They may shock the person into stopping to think about the questions. The other side of this is that the individual will resist the answers he or she might find in their heart and head that someone else has told them about. We have to expect this reaction, too. The truth will be denied at times.

Any answer you give to the perpetrator might sound easy, but actually doing so takes bravery. It’s going counter-to-the-culture. Bystanders do see the truth in what you may do to confront the offender, but they are afraid to be open about it. They may fear repercussions from superiors or co-workers. When we follow through we provide a social example of peer-modeling a format for interrupting racism.

Since whites are still in power and possess privilege in our social environment, it’s our particular role to initiate interruptions of racism with people who look like us. When we do this, it helps open up a dialogue with persons of color in the workspace. We gain more of their respect, because it’s hard for persons of color to tell a white person that they are engaging in racist language or answers, because they come from a “one down” position; sadly, many whites won’t even listen to persons of color. They get angry and defensive, and find they are very stuck in their own definition of reality. The complexion changes, however, if a European American stands up for truth, and challenges any kind of racist behavior. It’s at this point that whites can do ally building with persons of color or of different faith traditions.

By interrupting racism, we take an active role in the design of a safe and secure workplace where everyone may work towards common goals.

© Christopher Bear Beam, M.A.