For some background I am white, basically translucent. Most of my coworkers however are immigrants from India (some other places too but overwhelmingly India). I work in a laboratory and we sometimes have college students walk through on tours to see how the job works.
I was a bit annoyed this time because they asked me to step aside from my work so they could get a better look at the instrument. I walked over to the computers and a coworker from another department says “look at all of them, that’s insane!” I turn to see the group of students and say “huh?” Because these tours are fairly common so it’s weird one would surprise her. She went on to say “They’re all… you know” and by this time I got an idea of what she meant when I noticed the race of all of the students in the class.
She goes on to tell me that it’s bad to hire too many Indians because they “all take holidays off at the same time, we didn’t have tclp prep during Diwali ” and “they don’t speak English” along with a whole load of racists BS I won’t force you too read.
I had no clue how to respond. I have to face her desk everyday and I don’t want her to believe I am on her side but I also don’t want antagonism. I generally gave her my two cents but didn’t push the issue as far as I should have. I am new and don’t want to ruffle too many feathers and get myself canned since the job is hard to get.
Mostly I am hoping you guys can give some pointers to shut her down faster if this conversation ever comes up again as I don’t know what to say. I doubt she will change her mind but I just want her to feel that I am not going to ever agree with her on this.
Should I bring this to HR if I’m not a POC and it wasn’t technically targeted at me?
I’m in Canada btw.