Plan B Forum

Target employees sue over racist memo
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By john-boydchron-com-john-boyd@blog.timesunion.com (john.boyd@chron.com (John Boyd))



Three Hispanic former employees of Target are suing the national retailer over an in-house memo of “Multi-Cultural Tips” that they say perpetuated ethnic stereotypes while trying to prevent them.

Courthouse News reports, the lawsuit alleges discrimination based on Target’s “Organization Effectiveness, Employee and Labor Relations Multi-Cultural Tips,” which included the following notes on Hispanic warehouse employees:

•Food: not everyone eats tacos and burritos;
•Music: not everyone dances to salsa;
•Dress: not everyone wears a sombrero;
•Mexicans (lower education level, some may be undocumented);
•Cubans (Political refugees, legal status, higher education level); and
•They may say ‘OK, OK’ and pretend to understand, when they do not, just to save face.

Target told the Huffington Post the memo was used only at one distribution center in Yolo County, Calif, and was never part of any official training curricula, but apologized for its distribution nonetheless.

“The content of the document referenced is not representative of who Target is,” Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder told HuffPo. “We strive at all times to be a place where our team and guests feel welcome, valued and respected.”

However, the lawsuit alleges the tip sheet was just part of a broader discrimination by the company against Hispanic workers.

The former employees – Robert Gonzales, Bulmaro Fabian and Pedro Garcia-Ayala – allege that management consisted almost entirely of white workers. Gonzales also alleges that when he complained to upper management about frequent use of racial slurs by supervisors, he and his two co-plaintiffs were fired in retaliation.

•Food: not everyone eats tacos and burritos;
•Music: not everyone dances to salsa;
•Dress: not everyone wears a sombrero;

Crackpot wrote:Don't forget the Wasps

•Dress: not everyone wears a sombrero;

•Mexicans (lower education level, some may be undocumented);

Lord Jim wrote:I get the impression that these three:

•Food: not everyone eats tacos and burritos;
•Music: not everyone dances to salsa;
•Dress: not everyone wears a sombrero;

May have been somebody's attempt at de-bunking stereotypes with some gentle humor...

Sombreros? Come on...I've been to many parties, bars and festival events where the people attending were predominantly Hispanic, and the only ones I have ever seen wearing sombreros have been in Mariachi Bands or other entertainment groups...

"The content of the document referenced is not representative of who Target is,”

dales wrote:

Crackpot wrote:Don't forget the Wasps

Problem solved:

• Not everybody runs from the building if someone shouts "Raid!"

dgs49 wrote:The only people taking umbrage with this would be people who revel in opportunities to take umbrage. And a pox on all of them.

Big RR wrote:Gob--I'd agree with you if I could think of any reason why a memo like this would have been produced other than to perpetuate stereotypes. It's like writing not all asians drive badly, not all blacks are good at sports musically inclined; not all jews are stingy; not all native americans are drunks; etc. Just repeating stereotype in a memo (even when followed by negative) does nothing to get rid of it; at the very least it perpetuates it, at the worst it reinforces it. It accomplishes nothing positive. I just don't see it having any place in the workplace.