Kenneth Kaye "Workplace Wars and How to End Them"

I was cleaning out more books from my apartment and ran across Kenneth Kaye's "Workplace Wars and How to End Them"



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On pp48-49, Mr. Kaye provides cogent advice to people in both public and private sectors to avoid being condescending:

 

Pertinent to our discussion, though, is what happens when you do try to put prejudice aside. What's the first mistake people make when they determine to stretch beyond their prejudices and reach across the sex, race, or culture gap? They patronize, unintentionally and without even being aware that they are doing it. Then, having offended the other person, their natural next step is to say, "Those people are paranoid." And there they go again, miles apart."

 

 

Kaye then provides a purely hypothetical example:

 

Mistake: "Say, bro', what's hap'nin?" (White guy to black guy--implying, The color of your skin tells me you don't speak standard English.)

 

I immediately thought of an actual vs hypothetical example of Hillary Clinton adopting a fake Southern accent: "I don't feel in no ways tired"

 

  

 

Of course, in fairness, Democrats could counter that George W Bush did the same thing when he dropped his WASP New England accent and adopted a fake Texas cowboy one to appeal to his base.