Well, that was unpleasant

[mousme]

So one of my supervisors sent me a "joke" email. Y'know, one of those forwards that's meant to be cute or funny or both.

Except that this one wasn't. In fact, I was pretty offended, and I am not all that easily offended.

Gander International Airport

Newfoundlanders can be so polite!

Gander Tower : "Saudi Air 511 -- You are cleared to land on runway 9R."
Saudi Air : "Thank you Gander . Acknowledge cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R - Allah be Praised."
Gander Tower : " Iran Air 711 - You are cleared to land on runway 27L."
Iran Air : "Thank you Gander. We are cleared to land on infidel's runway 27L. - Allah is Great."

Pause.....

Saudi Air : " GANDER TOWER - GANDER TOWER !"
Gander Tower : "Go ahead Saudi Air 511.."
Saudi Air : "YOU HAVE CLEARED BOTH OUR AIRCRAFT FOR THE SAME RUNWAY GOING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS. WE ARE ON A COLLISION COURSE . . . . . INSTRUCTIONS, PLEASE!"

Gander Tower : "Well bless your hearts, and praise Jesus. Proceed to your destination and tell Allah we all said "Hi".

...

So, yeah. Offended kind of doesn't begin to cover it. The fact that it's a "joke" doesn't mean that I am supposed to be amused by the deliberate murder of dozens if not hundreds of civilians based on their religion or ethnicity or both.

So I sent the supervisor an email expressing my sentiments, politely, and CC'd our boss.

The supervisor's defense? He's former military, and he's lost friends to the war in Afghanistan, to the enemy and to suicide. Therefore, to him, the death of any person of Arab origin or who practices Islam, is fair game for a joke.

Dude, I GET that part, but you're talking about murdering non-combattants, here. Women and children take planes too. Students, the elderly. Someone's mother. Someone's cousin. Someone's best friend.

I have friends who are in the military too. Does that mean I will gleefully look on while one person deliberately aims two airplanes at each other? No.

Anyway, he's annoyed that I CC'd the boss. *shrug* I debated about that for a while, but in the end, I think I did the right thing. Our boss needs to know if one of the supervisors is a racist asshole. At least he's removed me from his mailing list.

Comments

[heartofawarrior.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Incredibly crappy "joke", for one thing, and for another, even if someone DOES find that funny, it doesn't belong in the workplace. It reflects badly on the institution, not just the idiot who thought it'd be great to spread around the office. Good on you for involving the boss - there are rules about what constitutes a "hostile work environment" for a reason! Hopefully this supervisor gets dealt with accordingly.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I don't think any immediate action will be taken, not unless it really gets out of hand. I think he will be more careful about what he spreads around the office in future, though. I hope so, anyway.