I work for a relatively small company within a small team. The team is composed of mostly Anglo Australian males (AA) and a number of non white immigrants (NW), and I am one of them.
The dynamic is very us and them but the specific examples of behavior I need advice on are as follows:
- In common areas, like the lunch room, when I walk in, the talking stops, blank stares, dead silence and nobody says hi or hello. As I leave the room they will resume talking. Same thing happens in other areas such as smoking area.
- There are indirect comments on race “I prefer to work with white people”, “I'm not racist my dog is black” , rate of immigration “Its getting too brown in here”, racial stereotypes, use of accents and jokes at the expense of NW people.
- Tone of voice changes when speaking with non native English speakers e.g speaking with AA is friendly, jovial, welcoming and seen as general banter, free flowing and inclusive. However, when speaking with NW the tone is short, sharp and bordering on aggressive.
- There is emphasis on difference and exclusion of NW groups, at times even referring to NW's as 'them or they'.
- Other instances include, if a NW asks / calls for help, they will be ignored after repeated attempts; where as AA's are immediately responded to and assisted. That can happen in a span of minutes. This is not a miscommunication issue as its clear the NW person has requested assistance.
-
Other examples like indicating with head and eye movement toward me to remind the group that i am in the room or have walked into the room so they are careful with that they do and don't say.
I've raised this with management and their position is that they cant do anything about this unless someone directly makes a racist comment to me e.g call me the N word.
I would like to know if this bullying by excluding certain people that are not liked by the dominant group? Or is this a workplace culture where racism is openly practiced? In either case, is any of it actionable and if so how?
Many thanks.