|
(1) If you are a victim of sexual or racial harassment, you
need to find a safe place at the workplace and record (a)
what happened (b) who was the aggressor (c) witnesses to the
event (d) the time and location of the incident (e) what
policy manual your workplace may have in writing regarding
your rights to be free from a discriminatory workplace.
(2) You need to immediately make noise and report any and
all incidents,
however innocuous you may feel the incident was, to
management and file
a WRITTEN report. Forget that nonsense of keeping it to
yourself or making an oral report.
(3) Find out the locale of the headquarters of the company
(if there is one) and send off a signed and dated copy of
your complaint. Certified mail only.
(4) File a charge with the local Ohio Civil Rights
Commission. The more details the better.
(5) If you are approached by management and they want to
"talk" and your shop is a non union shop, you need to have a
friendly face with you and/or record the meeting. Do NOT
take the "goodwill" of management as a sign that they are in
your corner. Do NOT sign any statements until it is reviewed
by a lawyer. You do not want sign away important rights
while you are in a state of confusion or are angry.
(6) If are in supervision, the same rules apply. Unless you
fight for you, "you" will not be afforded fair treatment.
Local management does not want to look bad to their
superiors because it gives the impression that they are
incompetent and are not doing a proper job of maintaining a
discriminatory free work place.
(7) If the incident has caused you mental or emotional
turmoil, seek out your doctor or seek a referral to a
psychologist, if needed, so that you have medical
documentation that the incident was severe enough to cause
you to seek out professional help in order to "realign"
yourself after the incident.
(8) Always keep your original records. Only give out copies
of your statements (reviewed first by an attorney) to
management or the union heads. At this point in time, you
are entering an adversarial position and everyone is not
your friend.
(9) If anyone has physically assaulted you, immediately file
a report with the local police and seek out a prosecutor to
present charges against the aggressor(s). Also, if needed to
go an ER or see your doctor if you were physically
assaulted.
(10) Keep a running diary of each day after the incident
because you may face some backlash from management or co
workers and you need to document this for future testimony.
Why? Because they are beginning to retaliate against you and
retaliation is a new and separate offense that you can
present.
(11) If the harm done to you is severe, you may want to
consider resigning because the workplace is considered
hostile and you can no longer properly function in such an
environment. If you do resign, make sure that you detail
your reasons in a letter (again, reviewed first by an
attorney) sent to both local management and headquarters.
Now, some of my personal commentary on workplace
discrimination.
(1) White folks do not like black folks telling on them.
They feel that since they are in power and/or are white that
they have privileges to do to you as they so desire and you
are supposed to smile and take it. Some of that we have
labeled "white skin privileges" in which you are not deemed
credible or important as white folks when you speak or act.
(2) People of color are at first glance can be deemed
suspect as to their testimony since the history of this
country has been to label such people as liars who are
deemed not worthy of being seen as credible.
The virulent racial history of this country informs us
that people of color are expendable and their rights to
stand up for themselves are not taken as seriously as a
white person.
(3) When fighting charges of sexism or racism, it is also
mindful to note that not every incident that you view as
being racial or sexual is, in fact, racial or sexual.
Some of it may simply be that your white co workers or white
managers are simply inept people who are clueless when it
comes to being a fair arbiter of all things racial or
sexual. But, when they engage in acts of racism or sexism,
they playing the role of the innocent dunce won't work in a
court of law.
Being a minority in a society in which people of color
are vilified or are bombarded with images that bespeak of
them as not worthy of credence or belief or they are
portrayed as intellectually stilted, means that you have to
be precise in identifying what happen to you and who did it
to you. None of that, "I think so" stuff but rather, "I know
so" stuff.
(4) Management loves to trot out its manuals and policies
that speak of justice, fair play and due process when they
are caught up in situations wherein they are being
challenged for allowing racial conduct to fester in a work
setting. That is what they are supposed to do and say
because they are out to defend their jobs; and the paycheck
that they want to continue to receive.
In closing whatever path you take, fight or flight, you
must make sure that you can live with yourself when the dust
settles and that you did not let an oppressor off of the
hook nor did you give them an out so that they can continue
with their practices of harming people of color.
Whatever terms of settlement, if any, that are agreed
upon, make sure that the terms are terms that you can live
with for years to come and especially make sure that the
terms of settlement does not include a clause by which you
are prohibited to speak to the public about what happened to
you and the terms of the settlement.
Management desires to have those terms in a "closed
mouth" agreement so that you can not spread the word of
their work place evil and alert others that they too can
fight and win! If you can but are not willing to stand up
for yourself, don't expect others to do that for you.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at
tolliver@juno.com
|
