It's Not That Bad

Some years ago, in a different life, my deputy (a black woman) and I sat in a room full of white men in suits and uniforms, looking at shopping bags full of photographic and other material that had been found, in a workplace, by a black officer who was covering an absence.

 

It was a "game" that the  all-white, male team of workers played - adding ‘funny’ captions to photos, leaflets etc. 

 

The small sample that follows are a few that became glued to my consciousness. 

 

A newspaper photo of a starving African toddler holding an empty bowl: "Greedy little w** bastard". 

 

A photo of a traumatised elderly black victim of gang rape: "Be gentle with me boys".

 

A leaflet with a photo of an elderly woman: "Piss ridden old hag". 

 

A photo of an old woman:  "Your c**t smells like rancid shit”.

 

A photo of a Downs Syndrome lad on a beach:  "Mong Watch".

 

... and on and on and on. 

 

Scrapbooks full of it; plastered all over the inside of cupboard doors. Some of it just stupid and crass; some of crude and cruel, and some betraying a visceral loathing of the targets. What made it worse was that some of it was material taken from facilities visited by these men in the course of their work.

 

And there we were, looking through it all and what disturbed me most, was my feeling that not one of the men in that room had any understanding of or concerns about how my deputy and I felt. 

 

This was in an area of employment in which staff interacted closely with members of the public all the time. They were well paid from the public purse and expected to be held in high public esteem.  

 

I could not imagine how a woman or a black person could have felt or been safe in that work environment, or how those men could have been trusted to carry out their work to the high standards rightly expected of them.

 

My advice was, that as it was gross professional misconduct and something all the team members has participated in, or been aware of, immediate dismissal for the entire team, and those less culpable could be allowed back on appeal. 

 

That was greeted with horror - as completely disproportionate - and my boss said dismissively: "It's not that bad, I've seen far worse on the walls of rugby locker rooms."  

  

My advice was ignored. The main offender went on sick leave on full pay for a year claiming stress, and then took medical retirement. Those in charge were demoted one rank, enrolled in an officer development programme and advanced beyond their original rank within six months of completing it. 

 

The whistle blower was targeted as a grass and eventually went to an IT, won a settlement, and transferred out, and it confirmed for me, yet again, how very, very deep institutional racism and sexism can run.