Is bringing up ethnic food with POC strangers pandering or trying to bond?
Rebuttal to New York Post: Was University of London Professor Nana Sato-Rossberg being too sensitive about sushi, or was there more to it?
A couple of weeks ago, an employment judge dismissed University of London Professor Nana Sato-Rossberg’s claim regarding unlawful harassment or discrimination at her workplace. According to Sato-Rossberg, Provost Claire Ozanne was “unconsciously biased” by telling the professor how much her family loves sushi.
The claim was dismissed for the following reasons: “The Respondent did not subject the Claimant to race discrimination, race harassment, [victimization], or protected disclosure detriment.”
In the judgment, Sato-Rossberg insists it was “unconsciously biased” because Ozanne “would not have said to a German person, ‘I like sausage.’ I have never tried to initiate a conversation. She anticipated that I like to talk about Japan. That is biased in the first place.”
The Japanese professor continued, “If Prof Claire Ozanne wished to make conversation, we had many commonalities through our work and professional academic [endeavor], but Prof Claire Ozanne chose to speak only about topics directly relevant to my race: the liking of Japanese food and that her family like it and eat sushi.”
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After reading the full judgment (NY Post skipped over 95% of it), I came away with two opinions:
Two things can be right at the same time — unconscious bias can start off innocent but progressively lead to harassment if it remains unchecked.
People who bring up ethnic food clear out of nowhere are annoying as hell.
Been there, heard that: The collard greens incident
I could relate to Sato-Rossberg’s sushi story all too well. The first person who came to mind was my dorm suitemate. I’d just unpacked for my sophomore year of college and was catching up with a freshman-year friend who became my roommate. Two women came into our dorm room to introduce themselves as our new suitemates. Shortly after we did the usual college intro — name, where you’re from, small-town residents immediately bringing up how many minutes/hours they are from a big city — one suitemate turned to me.
“I love collard greens!” she announced.
If you’ve watched even one episode of “The Office” or “Abbott Elementary,” you already know the breaking-the-fourth-wall deadpan stare I gave her.
