hey, it's just a joke.

i recently attended a training for my job as a property manager. the training was three days long for an online based management program i use. the training was held at an apartment complex that houses low income senior citizens. the trainer was kind of a strange fella. he kept making jokes that i felt were somewhat strange for someone who worked in property management and who was hired as a trainer.
during the second day, things got entirely out of control. as we were sitting during the break, a group of residents who lived at the complex walked through open room where the training was being held. the residents were speaking in loud voices, unaware of our training, and also speaking in korean, their native tongues. the property manager of the building asked the residents, politely, to please step out because we were in the middle of a training. they happily obliged. however, the trainer, found the need to make a snide remark. he said that the manager should have spoken to them in their native tongue, moo goo gai pan and kung pao chicken. i looked at him with shock and disgust. to justify his remark, he used a perfectly logical explanation (PLE). he said that he was an equal opportunity picker, he says that kind of stuff about everyone, so it is perfectly alright to make the remark that he did. i wanted to scream. i gave him one of the dirtiest looks ever and tried to make him feel terrible for his remark with my dirty looks. after a few moments, he came up to me and apologized for if he said anything that offended me. i did not accept his apology, because i felt his PLE was a cop out for someone, who says they are not racist, to justify their racist remarks.

so many times i have had to sit back and listen to people make stereotypical, snide, rude, racist remarks about other ethnicities, in supposedly good fun. and i feel like the person who is offended is often made to feel bad if the person making the remark apologizes for what they say. an apology doesn't make it right. understanding that such a comment is wrong, in bad taste, and terribly offensive to all kinds of people. and no one should have to stand for that.

the training continued for the rest of the time. i refused to awkwardly laugh at the trainer's jokes during awkward moments. i think that something small like that can make a difference. i don't know if it will make a difference to the trainer, if he will be conscious of what he says. but maybe, it will make him think twice before he says something like that to someone else.

i won't let that PLE stand anymore. because it isn't right and it should not be used as a justification anymore. we'll see how that works out.