J
Jeffara
Guest
I was a candidate for a promotion. Me(African American) and a white male were the only two. My supervisor chose the white male. His reason were he had a mechanical background and that would increase his ability to learn it faster than me, his background gave him an edge over mine. While we were in his office alone, he said" I am going to say this while there are no witness, I think that is a man's job, call me old fashion, but I will feel more comfortable with him over there instead of you. There is a white female holding the same position, I applied for. When I challenged his decision, I went to his superior, my supervisor said it again "its a man's job", but he also added " being a black female, went to your advantage, because there are not black females in leadership positions and some people may take it the wrong way, I should not have said that in front of you." After his superior somewhat apologized for my supervisors way of putting things, he assumed the matter was dismissed. I went to the head of human resources, in so many words he dismissed my supervisors actions saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks". Is this a misunderstanding or is it discrimination. Afterall, my supervisor never asked me or checked into my background, he just assumed because I was a woman I could not do it. When I said I was more than capable of doing the job, my supervisor immediately began to quiz me on measurements, I said did you as the white male the same questions? He said, "No. but I know he knows the answers. What should I do now.