RANT: Offensive Co-Workers - By: Kee So, I'm at work today and my manager (who I share an office with) is engaged in conversation with one of our producers. My manager is pregnant and the producer has a small child already (manager is white, producer is Jewish), so they were discussing child care costs, and public vs. private schooling etc. After marveling over how expensive day care is (apparently $1000 a month on average) the producer offered a bit of solice by joking "well, at least school is free". My manager immediately commented that she and her husband plan to send their child to private school (between $12,000 - $18,000 a year). She lives in Baltimore City (1 block from the county line) so it's understood that Baltimore City Public schools aren't the best. But she said "Oh, no there's no way my child will go to public school, she'll probably be selling drugs by the time she's 6". Then went on to say "the school system is terrible... she'd be the only white child in there. I want her to attend a school with more affluent parents and families, with more cultural diversity...." Mind you, I'm sitting right there, typing an e-mail. After all this is said - I froze and looked stared at my computer screen, just kind of shocked at how blazay this just flowed out of her mouth. Now,let's be honest, what parent doesn't want the best for their child? And if I were in her situation, although I'm black, I'd probably aim for private school too. But 2 things bother me about what transpired this morning: Firstly she immediately made the association that - since the schools are full of non-white kids, they must all be selling drugs. Proven by her statement of her child potentially being the only white one. So basically not so much a class issue, she made a racial association. And although she didn't say blacks, we can safely assume that's what she meant. This is Baltimore we're talking about. The second thing that bothers me is that she thought it perfectly fine to say this in work environment while I'm sitting right there. It is fine for her to feel that way, I can't change her mind. But how offensive is it to let it fly when a person of color is 7 feet away from you? And you're a manager? The least she could have done was save this conversation for her lunch break. So a few hours later, I'm on my way downstairs because I was asked to participate on-camera in a shoot. And I run into the Jewish producer in the hallway, who stopped me because she felt so badly about my manager's comments. She said her heart cringed, and she saw that I did too. She found it terribly offensive and offered multiple apologies. Although she didn't really do anything wrong, she regrets not saying something to my manager right then about her comment. I'm glad she stopped to talk to me, because at least I know I'm not being overly sensitive about race. I wonder if I am sometimes... That's all, just had to vent.