Sorry ik i just posted but i forgot to post this the other day. Wrote this one a few days ago but it happened 11/16/19….
i was at the mall the other day, and a woman pulled me and my dad over to her stand to talk about her product. she started talking to us about these new reusable heat packs (which they were actually super cool and really cheap, so i was a bit surprised). my dad was making small talk and asked where their team was from, and she said they were from the middle east. my dad was like oh thats so cool, how do you like it here, etc. he started talking about one of our friends who happened to be married to a famous actor in the middle east, but he couldn’t remember the actress’ name, and she couldnt either, so the girl asked one of her team members if she knew. her team member walked over to us and their boss told her to go back to work (even thought she was OBVIOUSLY not busy at all) and loudly chastised our spokeswoman in a way that was extremely patronizing and as if he were attempting to humiliate her, to which my dad said we were leaving and apologized to the girl. he was offended by the fact that the boss was actually hurting his own business by denying customers to be able to talk to multiple employees at a time. i was offended by the fact that he was very obviously trying to belittle and embarrass her. there is a largely growing concern of men abusing their power in the workplace, and whether or not you agree it was an abuse of power/status, i think any rational human being would agree it certainly doesnt look good with all of the scrutiny male bosses are under in our society. in fact i would go so far as to say that male employers should be on their very best behavior when treating everyone but especially so to their female employees. but, on the other hand, i think it is extremely important to look into someone else’s culture as an explanation. my own father did some video projects in the middle east on women’s equality and one of his female employees insisted on wearing a hijab as to be respectful towards their culture. it is equally important in my opinion to be respectful to other people’s cultures especially as white person going into a person of color’s culture. but i think it would be ignorant to ignore the gender inequality that is very prominent in the middle east (which is why we do have women from the middle east who have protested to it). similarly, there are women who respect and wish to be a part of that culture (however rare or unrare it is). i think as a woman it is okay to be offended when seeing what you deem as somewhat abusive behavior towards other women. but, as a white person, it would be inappropriate to force yourself into a situation of other cultures that you have no real experience in. anyway, that was just my personal opinion and thoughts on the situation.