10736: Lazy Latinos Reconsidered.

Had a few new thoughts regarding the previous post that speculated a racist White boss essentially said his Latinos staffers were lazy via a company-wide email. Perhaps all is not what it initially appeared to be. For starters, AgencySpy loosely identified the place as a “non-traditional agency.” Additionally, the memo writer used the term “samba”—which is a dance and musical genre rooted in Brazil and Africa. The taskmaster also used the term “nationality”—whereas “ethnicity” is a more common word for people from Latin America. So what’s the point? Perhaps the incident happened at a multicultural shop. Minority agencies typically employ a fair amount of Caucasians, especially in departments like accounting and media, potentially explaining why such workers might be inclined to arrive before 9:00 am. Not defending the attendance taker, but if he were of the same “nationality” as the samba staffers, calling them out in contrast to the Northern European teammates is a little different than a White person ripping lazy Latinos. Yeah, it’s still inherently racist, yet slightly less offensive.