this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2024
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That's sort of the point. There is minimal context on the image so we are left to extrapolate from what we can see.
I see a nice office setting with a fairly dressed down couple of people who seem reasonably at ease in the space. It is a chocolate cake which is the typical go-to in most situations and appears to be store bought. Depending on where you live you can get liquor in the store or at a small store nearby. Some of the largest displays and most well known brands are Makers, Crown, and Hennessy. These are typically larger displays where even if you knew nothing about liquor you could probably pick one of those 3... and of those crown comes in packaging which would be a pain to take apart if you were just looking for a quick better than a birthday card gift.
...So assuming they knew fuck all about him there's still a coin flip it would have been Hennessy. As far as the cake goes probably better than 60-70%. So hanlons razor: did someone just blow 70 bucks for a cake and booze to take a cheap shot at the guy? I doubt it.
I've worked in a lot of offices and I can tell you most people won't go out of their way to get you a gift on your birthday outside of maybe a gift card from a boss. I see no malice here. Am I making assumptions? Sure. It's an image and I provided my take on it. What was yours again?
I'm looking at the text associated with the image and see two possible scenarios.
The one that you describe where the co-workers are being nice and the black guy is being an asshole for complaining about it.
Or the other scenario where the black dude's co-workers are making assumptions about the dude based on stereotypes. In which case the black dude is rightfully bothered by this and the co-workers are making ignorant assumptions based on race.
And I see you making further ignorant assumptions and assuming the scenario that the black dude is being an asshole is the correct one without really considering the image and the text we're discussing at face value could actually be accurate. You're preferring a made up scenario which implies the black dude is being dishonest, rather than the scenario as presented.
We can't know which scenario is true. But we do know which assumptions you prefer, and your assumptions says something about you. You preference is for scenarios which assume black people are dishonest.
Try to be a better person.
Or three. It's all BS and the poster just snapped the picture (or it isn't even his picture) and he made up that it's his birthday/work gift.
Alternatively, this guy could be simply misinterpreting a pretty (all things considered) passable gesture. As I mentioned before: hanlons razor.
Totally plausible. This is an office party- we only know so much.
Why this? Yeah people can be insensitive but that's a hell of a leap to make here.
Possible? Sure. Here's my take: I just got cake and free booze. How we choose to interpret things goes a long way. Even if it were racially driven- there's two sides of this... and only of them is backed by malice... and if so: as I mentioned ... that's a big spend to be a dick.
If he wants to be offended by all means: go to hr. But he posted it on Twitter. Excuse me for being blunt but based on where he posted it- he was looking for a reaction and won't further speculate there.
I mentioned earlier that a lot of things have to do with perception. You are running to defend a dubious at best situation with minimal information. You have no skin in this- there is no reason to be so invested in something where you would attribute my blunt, but fair, assessment as malice. Many people would do well to take a breath before jumping to conclusions... we'd all be better for it.
You should have stopped there.
Every day. How about you?