This Isn’t A Black-And-White Issue

I’m going through a pack of case studies. They are used to demonstrate real events, in this case, and to teach what could occur if rules aren’t followed and the consequences. For this class, it is industrial health and safety laws and regulations.

I’ve picked a few that I feel give a broad and interesting selection of various recent issues. And really just out of courtesy, I let the training manager know what I’m using for the lesson plan.

Manager: “Oh, could we swap this one? It has some racial undertones.”

Me: “Does it? It’s just a factual report of an event. I don’t think race is mentioned.”

Manager: “Well, I mean, the circumstances seem to be adding to a racial stereotype.”

Me: “Does it? It’s fake names; I don’t see how it could—”

Manager: “I would just be more comfortable if you swapped it.”

Me: “Okay, fine. Not a problem. I will rewrite a few things. It will be fine.”

Manager: “I’m not happy with this one, either. Is this a typically Jewish name?”

Me: “I don’t really… No, I don’t think so.”

Manager: “I just feel we shouldn’t single anyone out.”

Me: “There is no malice here. These are factual criminal reports we received that already have fake names attached to them. These are pretty standard in the industry. I’ve never heard any concerns over these.”

Manager: “No, I understand, but we should be mindful of how we present ourselves.”

Me: “By only having white ‘sounding’ names in all of our training material?”

Manager: “I’m not going to answer that. Just change the packs.”

Completely dumbfounded, I changed the whole lesson plan. I couldn’t edit the existing ones as they came preprinted, and all the questions and activities were specifically aimed at looking at what laws were broken in the examples.

We are both mixed white ethnicity. There had been no complaints nor anything race-related recently. Still, today, I don’t understand who was supposed to be offended, or where the undertones were. I stopped sharing my lesson plans after that and never had another issue.