The REAL Issue With That Racially Offensive Home Depot Tweet

Last week, everybody was up in arms about a racially insensitive tweet that Home Depot posted from their company account.   

Take a look: 

Pretty offensive, right?  Yep.  There's no need for me to go into details about WHY it's offensive. If you don't know, I honestly don't have the time or energy to break it down for you.  But take it from me - a reasonable, rational, super nice, liberal black woman with a great smile - It. Is Offensive.  

OK-enough about me...  

So, listen.  I like Home Depot (told you I was nice).  I shop there often and when I purchased my new home five years ago, I visited their store 4-5 times a week for months.  I was there so much the staff knew me by name!   

From a PR perspective, I commend Home Depot for taking swift action after this tweet was posted. They acknowledged it was wrong, stated their zero tolerance policy for things like this and terminated the agency and employee who were responsible for the post. They're also reviewing their social media policy so that incidents like this won't happen again.    

But here's the real issue with that tweet.  It shows first-hand the lack of racial diversity among employees in major corporations and national advertising agencies in this country. In other words - I can almost guarantee you, there were no African Americans in those initial meetings about the content of this post. That tweet was posted by someone who didn't know any better and/or someone who has had little to no racial sensitivity training. Either way, it's bad. 

I'd like to think if there was an African American employee working on this project and someone suggested this terrible tweet, that employee would have paused and said, "Wait. A monkey and black men?  Hell no."  Crisis averted. 

Companies aren't perfect. What happened with Home Depot could have happened to any Fortune 500 company in America.  But if corporations want to continue to grow and prosper, they should have a diverse and inclusive employee base - from the board room to the mail room.  Why? Diversity breeds a culture of fresh creativity and innovation.  It allows people from various backgrounds to contribute to the success of the business.  

If companies don't embrace diversity and understand the importance of cultural sensitivity, we'll continue to see these kinds of public mishaps and crude blunders.  

Note: Diversity = Attributes such as gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, physical ability, age, etc. 

  

10 Worst Co-Workers Of All Time

No intro needed.  Let's jump right in, shall we?

The Brown Noser - Easy to spot!  They're usually promoting themselves at every opportunity, in a corner chatting it up with the "boss" or somewhere trying to be seen and/or heard by the influential leaders at the company.  But you know what?  They're actually fun to watch!  Brown Nosers aren't bad people, they're just annoying.  

The Snob - Calm, cool and collected.  You cannot and will not ruffle their feathers.  They won't participate in any office politics, good or bad.  They follow company policies (they love the HR department), give fake smiles and boo hiss when it comes to office gossip.  Sound boring?  Hmmmmm.... :-) 

The Inappropriate Jerk - Offensive jokes.  Out-of-line comments.  Polyester suits & bad teeth.  Just all-around bad person. 

The Know-It-All - They know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING.  The "Company Guru." You name it and they've done it.  You got a problem?  They know how to solve it - their way, of course.  They give unsolicited advice, and it's usually accompanied with a condescending smirk or question. Just know that they're intimidated by intelligence & confidence, so if they're coming for you...take that as a compliment. :-) 

The Office Hormone - Everything stresses them out: Deadlines, emergencies, conference calls, cafeteria food, meetings, office parking, holiday parties, ___________, etc.  They cry.  They're dramatic.  They have attitudes for no reason.  They Wear. You. Out.  

The Backstabber -  The O'Jays said it best:  *singing*  "They smile in your face... All the time they wanna take your place.  The Backstabbers!"  They will sell their soul, a kidney and their first born for a promotion or job recognition. What makes you think they won't sell you (a co-worker) down the river or throw you under the bus? 

The Slacker - *sigh*  I mean... *sighs, again*  Lazy, unimpressive and always trying to get out of work.  

The Manipulator - Careful. They sometimes disguise themselves as Mr. Nice Friendly or Little Miss Helpful.  Ahhhhh, but they have ulterior motives.  Yes, they do!  They're not just being nice because they're a "nice" person.  Newp. Clue: If a person is always the "hero" or "victim" of their own story - red flag!  #manipulator

The Wimp - Scared to speak up for themselves or anybody else.  Afraid to share their opinions.  Their motto:  "Just go along to get along." 

The Bully - Believe it or not, there are bullies in the workplace.  Quite often they've been given some kind of power. They use that power to mistreat and intimidate people, and sadly they tend to get away with it.  The looooove "wimps." (Stay tuned - I'm gonna do an entire blog post on workplace bullies.)