QUICK TIPS: PRIVACY ISSUES

Keep your business to yourself. Don’t set yourself up for gossip mongers. Not everyone you meet—or even trust—has your best interests at heart. Assume that anything you share may get around the office. Don’t talk (at least not in detail) about your spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend, yearly salary, sexual history, sexual orientation, etc. Here’s a hard truth. Many White people like to get in Black folks’ business. They want to hear stories about the ghetto, where they will believe you are from. They will want to know whether you are from a two-parent home or were raised by a single mother (on welfare), etc. Once the rest of the office plays telephone with your life story, you (like the rapper 50 Cent) will have been shot 9 times, will have sold drugs, etc. Don’t even go there!