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Brown in America

WWYD: Colleague says “Indo-China war will solve world population problem”

By: Santosh :+: Under: Brown in America
On: ⋅ April 22, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

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What Would You Do….
if you were in reader X’s situation?

Writes reader X (identity not revealed for obvious reasons), one of our Über readers:

Could you please advice about something ?
One person (american of european descent) in my office told me today that:
Having a war between India and China would be great for world’s population…and then no offense meant etc. I said some stuff at the time, but I am feeling disturbed about the whole thing. Do you thing I am being too sensitive, and should let this thing go ? Or should I talk to the person and tell that it was a very insensitive thing to say etc? Or what should I do ?
I would appreciate your advice.

What would you have done if you were in reader X’s situation? Please keep in mind that this is a professional environment and there were no direct threats made to reader X.

I term extreme statements like the one made by reader X’s colleague as “The Marie Antoinette Syndrome”. Remember “let them eat cake”? The statement is overly simplistic, devoid of intellect and extreme. It goes along the lines of “solve world poverty, kill all poor people” or some exceedingly obtuse statement to that effect.

My reaction?

“I would’ve waited till this person was in a crowded room and repeated the person’s statement and told him that irrespective of the world’s population, it would be a better place without people like him. Then I would’ve proceeded to dunk hot coffee on his head, recorded that conversation and put in on YouTube” ….. I wish…. I was actually starting to type something like that when I got a “WTF” look from my conscience, a.k.a, my better half.

After composing myself and giving it some thought, this was my real response to reader X, considering reader X is in a professional environment and an office battle might not be conducive to reader X’s career, in general:

Sorry you have to put up with a bigot, polite but bigoted nonetheless.
I’ll give you my personal opinion here. One thing I’ve learnt is that when people want to make controversial statements but don’t really have any points to argue on, they use cop-out phrases like “no offense meant” and “don’t take this the wrong way”.
I don’t think you were being overly sensitive at all. I don’t think one on one talks will solve this problem because when people hold such extreme opinions they can seldom be reasoned with. Also, such people are looking for attention and anything you say or do will give him exactly what he wants.
If possible, just ignore him and not talk to this person again. If he tries to approach you, just tell him you’re not comfortable being around him. If he persists talk to your supervisor. I believe the situation resembles a hostile work environment.
Hope that helps.

I’m sure at least some of our readers have endured such uncomfortable situations at work, school or daily life, where an acquaintance/colleague made them extremely uncomfortable with their extreme views on your culture/religion/country of origin. We are interested in hearing some personal accounts and how people dealt with it. Please share your thoughts, opinions and experiences in the space below and keep it civil.

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