GP MICROAGGRESSIONS - CASE 3
Will is a junior associate at the firm. He is in a meeting with a client to prepare for an upcoming hearing. He is grateful for the assistance of Sam, an articling student. Sam is Indigenous, from the Saugeen First Nation. The client, Joe Romano, is president of a large construction union. He is known for being alternately friendly and irrationally demanding, often threatening to take his business elsewhere when things don't go his way. Will finds him intimidating. About an hour into the meeting, Will steps out for a washroom break, leaving Sam to help Joe put some documents in chronological order.
When he returns, he finds Joe and Sam engaged in a discussion. Joe is speaking. "I can't believe you're an Indian!" Joe is saying. "You don't look it. I would have guessed you were Portuguese, you know what I'm saying?" And then, "don't get me wrong, I love Indian people. There's a bunch of them up near our cottage. My wife went out to one of those stores along the highway and came back with one of those huge sculptures, what's it called...a totem pole! We put it up on the lawn. And they're great hunters, some of them. You should come out hunting with us sometime!"
Sam is looking uncomfortable and saying very little.
When he returns, he finds Joe and Sam engaged in a discussion. Joe is speaking. "I can't believe you're an Indian!" Joe is saying. "You don't look it. I would have guessed you were Portuguese, you know what I'm saying?" And then, "don't get me wrong, I love Indian people. There's a bunch of them up near our cottage. My wife went out to one of those stores along the highway and came back with one of those huge sculptures, what's it called...a totem pole! We put it up on the lawn. And they're great hunters, some of them. You should come out hunting with us sometime!"
Sam is looking uncomfortable and saying very little.
- You are Will. How do you respond?
- Would your response be different if Will was a senior partner rather than a junior associate?
