In a joke about cops & robbers, who plays whom?
How an iPad office display can feel like a gut punch
Astro tells the story of what happens when employees within an anti-Black work space decide to make a “silly little joke.”
Something hit me dead in the gut when I saw this iPad display. Something that seems almost silly to mention.
I work a corporate job that took me from three jobs to one. I’ve never felt so isolated in a job environment. Old, well-off rich white men and Karens. People step back when I round the corner but I’m 6’4 so maybe it’s that. Karens walk on the other side of the sidewalk. That doesn’t bother me that much either. That’s almost funny to me.
Trust me, bitch, I don’t want to walk by you either.
In Cops & Robbers, who plays whom?
During the 2020 protests I walked into the hallway one day and there was a sign with two iPads. One was a cop and the other a robber. The cop iPad was white and the robber… You guessed it: a Black iPad.
I looked at that and said, “What in the fuck. Racist ass company.”
Then, after the ‘We’re Listening’/’We Hear You’ phase of 2020 (where white people tried to walk back their corporate racism) that sign disappeared. No apology.
The context (aka, the anti-Black work space in question)
I work in aerospace and defense contracting. I know if you’re a leftest or liberal it’s basically working for the devil but when you’re Black you have less room to turn your noise up on opportunity.
I was working multiple jobs before I got this one.
I have thick skin about things partly because I’ve trained myself to laser focus on my money and let stuff roll. But 2020 did something to me. It made me cut people who couldn’t understand the protest out my life.
If I had to explain why kneeling on someone’s neck to death was bad, I dropped them.
These people at my job are making six figures, and then some, a year. They only see Black people on the news and movies, and they act like it.
I notice people not granting me face rights in meetings, the only Black person in the room. Meanwhile our corporate is pushing DEI training up the ass. My guess is other people are tired of turning the other cheek. I get it.
I tried to get my steps around campus and some Work Karen stepped off the path into the street. Like, okay. I don’t want to be by you either, but whatever. I almost swung around on that one to ask if it was that bad.
I have only seen 4-5 other Black employees during my time here. I know my own experience isn’t the best so I always ask them, “Are they treating you okay?”
I noticed the iPads right before the 2020 protests.
The iPads are the icing on the cake at a job like this. I noticed them right before I saw who was getting facial rights in meetings.
There are areas where you can’t use communication devices. So everyone has to check their devices into a station. That’s what that hallway sign was for. Good people (white) don’t use their devices in these areas. Bad ones (Black ones) do. Don’t be a Black one. That’s what that “joke” was all about.
I was only in that hallway once and didn’t see the sign again after that first time. But that’s all it takes to stick with you.
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