This is just an odd little story from my life.
Years ago, I worked as a
technician at a place that made industrial lubricants and metal cutting fluids.
And yes, it was as exciting as it sounds. Anyway, one day my boss was trying to
mix something up but he needed a sample of something. So I was going around to
the other labs to see if anyone had some. One of the other technicians was an
older woman I was friendly with. When I stopped in her lab, she was in the
middle of like three different things. She explained that her boss was on a
business trip that week, and he had left her almost two weeks’ worth of work to
do. This contrasted my boss who’d sometimes be gone for a week but only leave
me three days’ worth of work, as mentioned in an earlier Random Story. I smiled
and was a fraction of a second away from saying to her, “So you’re saying
[boss’ name] is a real slave driver?” I meant it as someone giving a heavy work
load. Fortunately, I was able to stop myself because she’s black. I don’t know
her family history, but even if her ancestors freely came to this country, that
would still have been an insensitive phrasing. It wasn’t that I had forgotten
she was black, it was just something unimportant, like if someone is left or right-handed.
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