Rant about racism

I love my job. For the most part. I make good money tutoring writing, something I love to do, and my boss isn't an asshole. But there's one thing that keeps coming up in staff meetings and at training that just irks me. And I can't say anything more about it there than I have already, and so I sit there in frustrated silence. So now I'm going to blog about it.

My boss has this thing about racism. And just in general about things that might make people uncomfortable. And here is the scenario we always talk about, not directly quoted:

Someone comes into the writing center for help with a paper that, after reading it, seems to contain some racist things. What do you do?

You freakin help them.

But he always says that if something in a paper makes you uncomfortable you don't have to work with that person. But do you know how many things make people truly uncomfortable?? For example, boyfriend HATES cotton balls. And by the above rule, if someone brought in a paper about cotton balls, he could be all, "Uh, no, sorry, I can't do this." And then if the other tutor in that time slot has another appointment, poor cotton ball writer is just SOL. Which is so not fair.

Now I understand that racism is much more inherently offensive than little white things you use to take off nail polish or whatever. But here's the thing:

1. People are always offended by something
2. There will always be racists in the world
3. There is nothing in our mission statement that reflects the fact that we are anti-anything; in fact it states just the opposite: that we help with all kinds of writing.

I highly doubt that helping a racist with his grammar is going to increase the number of racists in the world. And lots of things are going to make you uncomfortable, so you should probably get used to it. I mean, if someone came to me with a paper clearly stating views against same-sex marriage, I would probably be uncomfortable. And I would also want to punch them in the face. But I would do my damn job and tutor them. With a smile : D

If we can turn racists away, who's to say we can't turn anyone away? It's just ridiculous, and we put so much focus on it. If we're going on that rule, we need to put it somewhere where people can see it. Because as of now, there is nothing about it, so if someone like boyfriend gets a cotton ball paper and no other tutors are available, and that paper is due in in a few hours or even the next day, that person might get a shitty grade on their paper. And that sucks, because they came to a place that offers a great service to all writers. 

I don't wish racists ill. I think that being racist is pretty dumb, but I don't want them all to fail their papers or whatever. We are not furthering racism in the world by tutoring a person who wrote a racist paper. Seriously. It's OK. 

SAVE THE COTTON BALLS