What Would You Know About the Race-Card?

Many Whites will throw around accusations that Black workers just play “the race card.” Most times, they never know the full facts about what a Black worker has suffered, but they still feel it’s okay to throw around “the race card” and “race-baiter” labels as if Blacks have nothing better to do with their time.

Do they ever stop to think about the additional mistreatment that a worker will often encounter after filing a complaint of race-based discrimination, harassment or retaliation? Even a victim of sexual harassment can tell you that accusers are often subjected to additional mistreatment, following a complaint.

So, I ask…who willingly puts their life into chaos simply to make a false claim? The number of workers willing to file false complaints and to put themselves in a position to have an even bigger bulls-eye painted on their forehead has to negligible.

When I filed my complaint with a state agency, alleging race-based retaliation and discrimination, the case worker strongly suggested I not file the complaint until I’d left employment with the company. She said that her agency found that attacks and illegal misconduct often escalated AFTER a person filed a complaint.

She said many employers would often document all sorts of false issues and get witness statements against a complaining employee in order to discredit them. In fact, she came right out and said that many employers looked for ways to “set up” complaining employees, while they were still employed.

She said these actions were taken because employers hoped that any evidence (false or real) that they could come up with would create a pretext or cover story for all of the decisions that had been made against the employee in the workplace. There was also hope that creating patterns of poor performance or bad attitude, etc. would justify why an employee was being targeted by HR staff, managers, directors, etc.

Stated plainly, even when being investigated by a state or Federal agency, many employers continue to engage in illegal abuse against complaining employees.

Again, who puts themselves in this position simply to be a race-baiter or to play the so-called race card? It is not worth it from an employment/financial, physical or emotional standpoint. Depending on where a worker is geographically location, they may have an issue of dealing with courts that don’t like to take on these cases. So, there’s always an uphill battle, when making race-related complaints at work.

People shouldn’t focus on petty labels like “race-baiter” and accusing someone of playing the “race card.” Unless you’ve experienced the trauma that many workplace complainants are subjected to, you should not be so quick to judge anyone’s motives for filing a grievance.

Real racism and real cover-ups and real targeting of complaining employees makes it nearly unbearable for many workers to see through the process of vindicating their rights through an investigatory agency or by legal means. Many workers walk away and start a career somewhere else. This is often easier than being subjected to continuing race-related mistreatment at a job.

If anyone assumes that many or most Black workers, who complain of race-based misconduct at work are playing the “race card,” then they should look in the mirror and ask themselves about their own race-related biases against Blacks.

No one chooses to be victimized at work.

The number of people willing to “play the race card” and to see it through an internal or external investigation and/or legal scrutiny is probably close to zero. A liar will be exposed!!

You couldn’t pay me to subject myself to the trials and tribulations I’ve endured. I’d rather be left alone to do my job! I’m sure I speak for many others.

By the way, accusing Blacks of playing the race-card (without knowing the facts of a case) amounts to playing the race-card yourself.