World gone mad: Music conductor fired for making racist joke even though "victim" says no.

[DonFerrari]

Machiavellian said:

irstupid said:

Holleywood made those racists. You can thank them through their movies and stuff that stereotyped it.

Grits is purely a southern thing. 100% location, not race. The three things I listed apply to all areas. If someone says grits, no one thinkgs black, white, mexican, straight, bi, tri, whatever. THey think 100% the south. A regional food. That's it. Be like if someone made a crack at MN and said hotdish. Or in this case, since the guy was British the other guy could have said something about scones or tea or something. Not racists, making fun of a region.

Why do you believe Grits mean south.  I live in Ohio and grits are big here.  Actually a lot of northern states grits is popular.  The same thing you labeled as making something southern which is movies also does the same with certain foods, drinks you name it.  So would you say if the music professor did the same accent to a white person from the South would it be considered a slur for southern redneck.

The point still remains, in corporate America its best to just not go there period.  I know I do this all the time with New York or Boston accents but I never do it at work.  I just do not know how it will go down with certain people so instead of being in an HR room trying to explain myself.  As I stated before, I have been here myself and the leason I learned is to just not do anything remotely could be construed or making fun of anything.  Its not worth it.

Considering your own admission of companies care for image even what you say and do outside the company could be used against you.