This is to be the first of hopefully many pieces of my Office Diaries section. I suppose it is an effort to convince myself I am one of the evil minions now - part of multiple despised guilds, including but not restricted to 'office goers' and 'working class'. Office life, as it is, is often about moderation. You want to be appropriate. Except when you end up doing that too much, to your own detriment. Read on to know how.
I sit in cubicles around team leads and low level managers, so I personally get to witness a lot of leadership and mentoring styles. One of these leads is a North Indian fellow, but most of his team is filled with people from the south - Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka et al. Now this team lead self admittedly is not strong in his English diction, so he overcompensates by trying to talk only in English when in office - whether it is necessary or not. Which works out just fine given his team mates could not possibly master Hindi the way he natively has. In short, they are perfectly fit, and there is seemingly no comic outlets. And yet.
What Happened Anyway?
The southies (Yeah, that's what I went with, so sue me) have come to report on work they have done and get it reviewed by the lead. The lead keeps talking to them in English, but goes out of his way to make them feel comfortable. When he tells them something and they don't get it, he grimaces and says, "Aiiyo!" and then continues to explain to them. When he tries to convince them, he falls back on the trust old stereotypical sowuthu Yindian Yaccent.
Obviously, my ears prick up, given that I am a south Indian and I can recognize mockery and stereotypical othering of 'my people' as it were. I turn to him to give him the indignant scolding I feel he deserves, except I see these southies take it in their stride and move on as though they never even noticed. So I am now pissed with the tormentor, and the tormented. But also curious, after a fashion. Everything I know of the person tells me he is not a racist, or a regionalist. So I don't get why he would behave in such a way. Hell, he is normal to me, and my name shouts out my heritage louder than my words ever could.
Talking to the team members I find that he has always been like this, and it never seemed out of spite, so they go with it. That, plus he's essentially their boss. So it comes down to how you see it. This incident also reminds me of a recent episode of Suits where Louis wears a Kimono and decorates the board room in Japanese style to impress a prospective Japanese client. Mike tries to tell him this is inappropriate and looks like he is mocking the man, but Louis sticks to his version of reality - he is showing them that he respects their culture and that implies he can be trusted.
If you think about it, the appropriateness of cultural appropriation by someone else is based on two factors - one, the subject of the cultural appropriation, and two, the intent of the actor. Now, there are many radical liberals who would say even the second does not matter. In their eyes, it doesn't matter that you are trying to make an 'othered' person feel that they fit in by appropriating their own culture, that you 'othered' to begin with.
Think of it this way. First you make fun of south Indians with accents and saying 'Aiiyo', and culturally stereotype the lot by portraying them in movies in a defined and restricted manner for ages, and then when it is ingrained as an image whenever you see a south Indian and taken as truth - you use the same to make south Indians feel comfortable?
Of course, you in the above sentence is a generic to all pan Indian stereotyping of certain classes. And I also admit that appropriation can only come successfully once the stigma attached to it is gone, or forgotten. I mean, if this was the 1980s where there anti-south stigmatization was commonplace, then maybe saying aiiyyo would be considered offensive. In many places it still is. Try calling someone from Bihar Bihari to make them feel comfortable, without offending them. I dare you. Try it.
Perhaps why this appropriation of south Indian stereotypes is almost okay is because people have forgotten (I doubt forgiven) the history associated with the words. But does that make it okay, or any less offensive? I can only guess.
What do I do?
Of course, now this co-worker of mine didn't actually look to degrade or offend, if anything, he tried to make the others feel comfortable. So how does one deal with cross-cutural interactions in the office then?
Honestly, I do not know. If any of you have a definitive answer, do share with me. The best I can guess at, is that we forget cultural differences in office towards the appropriation of the corporate culture. Corporate culture usually is separate from any regional culture, given the diversity that goes into building it. There is also an element of professionalism that allows for aloof interactions that have the cold comfort of propriety, even if it lacks the warm comfort of inclusion. Sure, the team mates will now be stiff and not relaxed, but at least, you're not stepping on anyone's toes.
Is this new world any better? Again, I do not know.
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