I thought this was a joke, but it appears to have been posted sincerely for educational purposes. Here’s some information I found recently at the business magazine Diversity Inc., in a series of articles on what not to say in the office.

Don’t ask your American Indian co-workers to “hold down the fort.”
Don’t speak loud or slowly to people in wheelchairs.
When a co-worker comes out as LGBT don’t say “I thought you were gay”.
Never ask your African American co-workers “do you eat a lot of Fried Chicken?”
Don’t tell your white co-workers “you’ve got all the money.”
Don’t ask your Latino co-workers “hola! habla ingles?”
Don’t say to your Asian co-workers “you must be the IT guy.”

In one context this could be the rough draft for a sitcom, in another it could be some seriously hurtful shit. 

As a hetero white guy in Vermont I don’t feel like there’s a lot more that I can say without sounding sensitive and new-agey or insensitive and out of touch. So I’ll just leave it at that.

Things Not To Say

This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2008.

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