Since when is "Mexican" derogatory?

Milestone

I work at a call center. We have a group of Spanish speaking employees, known as the "Spanish Team".

Every single person in this group of 10 people is from Mexico. I know them all and they are great folks.

In a meeting, I referred to them as the "Mexican Team" and was promptly ushered into my boss's office to be written up. He says that was a derragatory statement to call the "Spanish Team". I informed him that they are ALL Mexican, and it is a nationality, not an insult.

By the way, I've spoken to these employees and none of them are insulted. In fact, they find it insulting that my boss considers the term "Mexican" to be derogatory.

Your thoughts?

justam

I think it may depend on the context and perhaps the tone of your voice?

Milestone

justam wrote:

I think it may depend on the context and perhaps the tone of your voice?

Nah. It's because corporate America is so P.C. and also because of the heated immigration debate. I live in liberal Oregon, where people get offended by the term "white milk" at Starbucks.

blackredyellow

based on your description, it sounds like way over-PC to me...

Could you call a team of all women the "girl team"

VictoryGin

Milestone wrote:

Nah. It's because corporate America is so P.C. and also because of the heated immigration debate. I live in liberal Oregon, where people get offended by the term "white milk" at Starbucks.

i think the bigger question is why are you going to starbucks if you live in portland?

justam

Milestone wrote:

Nah. It's because corporate America is so P.C. and also because of the heated immigration debate. I live in liberal Oregon, where people get offended by the term "white milk" at Starbucks.

CA is like that too. People seem to be bending a bit too far in the PC direction.

RolandTD20Kdrummer

soon politically correct will be politically incorrect and we will have to refer to each other as entire legal pragraphs with sub sections and clauses...gmafb...

Why doesn't mexico have a olympic team? Because every Mexican that can run, jump, and swim is already across the border!

Milestone

VictoryGin wrote:

i think the bigger question is why are you going to starbucks if you live in portland?

Good question. Starbucks is walking distance from my work. Other choices would require a drive (during a 15 minute break).

chopitdown

it's dumb that you got written up for that.
have the spanish team send a written letter to your boss and your bosses boss and tell them they feel the term spanish team is derogatory.

Rushlimbo

Milestone wrote:

I work at a call center. We have a group of Spanish speaking employees, known as the "Spanish Team".

Every single person in this group of 10 people is from Mexico. I know them all and they are great folks.

In a meeting, I referred to them as the "Mexican Team" and was promptly ushered into my boss's office to be written up. He says that was a derragatory statement to call the "Spanish Team". I informed him that they are ALL Mexican, and it is a nationality, not an insult.

By the way, I've spoken to these employees and none of them are insulted. In fact, they find it insulting that my boss considers the term "Mexican" to be derogatory.

Your thoughts?

Perhaps they are referred as the "Spanish team" because they take the calls requiring Spanish. Therefore calling them Mexicans (I'm guessing they are not illegals) could be seen as deragatory.

cornnifer

Milestone wrote:

I work at a call center. We have a group of Spanish speaking employees, known as the "Spanish Team".

Every single person in this group of 10 people is from Mexico. I know them all and they are great folks.

In a meeting, I referred to them as the "Mexican Team" and was promptly ushered into my boss's office to be written up. He says that was a derragatory statement to call the "Spanish Team". I informed him that they are ALL Mexican, and it is a nationality, not an insult.

By the way, I've spoken to these employees and none of them are insulted. In fact, they find it insulting that my boss considers the term "Mexican" to be derogatory.

Your thoughts?

All things considered, it isn't derogatory. A person from Mexico is Mexican. A person from Japan is Japanese, etc. Now the "team" you refer to, i'm guessing is refered tp as the "Spanish" team not because of where they are from, but because of the language they speak. Mexican is not a language, so calling them the "mexican team" is inaccurate. The language is Spanish and not everyone who speaks it is Mexican. So i agree you need to be careful. Were you purposefully being derogatory? i very highly doubt it. Should you have been "written up"? i wouldn't say so. Reminded of why it is the "Spanish team" and not the "Mexican team"? Perhaps. Maybe, thats all your boss was getting at... or maybe, he has something up his ass.

RolandTD20Kdrummer

Milestone wrote:

I work at a call center. We have a group of Spanish speaking employees, known as the "Spanish Team".

Every single person in this group of 10 people is from Mexico. I know them all and they are great folks.

In a meeting, I referred to them as the "Mexican Team" and was promptly ushered into my boss's office to be written up. He says that was a derragatory statement to call the "Spanish Team". I informed him that they are ALL Mexican, and it is a nationality, not an insult.

By the way, I've spoken to these employees and none of them are insulted. In fact, they find it insulting that my boss considers the term "Mexican" to be derogatory.

Your thoughts?

Tell him go go fuck himself at the nearest Taco Bell. And if he wants to call you white devil it's ok with you...

VictoryGin

Milestone wrote:

Good question. Starbucks is walking distance from my work. Other choices would require a drive (during a 15 minute break).

ah, okay. too bad, portland has really good coffee.

getting written up may be kind of lame, but i can see why they're called the spanish team--i assume they're speaking spanish on the calls? they're not speaking mexican, and not just mexicans speak spanish. and everyone else isn't the 'american team' or something i assume. does a write up mean anything? if so, i'd have your friends talk to your boss.

even flow?

I wonder if the Spanish people in Spain feel slighted by the Mexicans being called a Spanish team?

cornnifer

even flow? wrote:

I wonder if the Spanish people in Spain feel slighted by the Mexicans being called a Spanish team?

Probably not since the language they speak is, in fact, SPANISH, which is, i'm absolutely sure, why they are refered to as the "spanish team". It has nothing to do with nationality.

Pacomc79

Considering what Pizarro and Cortez (etc.) did to thier country, I would think it far more derrogatory to be called Spanish.

Generally, it's offensive to anyone in the latino world to be called mexican if they aren't from there.

If they are from Mexico, I don't see what the problem is.

even flow?

cornnifer wrote:

Probably not since the language they speak is, in fact, SPANISH, which is, i'm absolutely sure, why they are refered to as the "spanish team". It has nothing to do with nationality.

They don't speak Mexican in Mexico? I'm shocked!

cornnifer

even flow? wrote:

They don't speak Mexican in Mexico? I'm shocked!

ahhhhhh, sarcasm.
i'm a big fan of sarcasm.

even flow?

cornnifer wrote:

ahhhhhh, sarcasm.
i'm a big fan of sarcasm.

My point basically was that the "spanish team" being from Mexico probably could have cared less about the one guy refering to them as Mexican. Thus should the Spanish be concerned?

cornnifer

even flow? wrote:

My point basically was that the "spanish team" being from Mexico probably could have cared less about the one guy refering to them as Mexican. Thus should the Spanish be concerned?

i wonder if the rest of the call center is referred to as the "English Team" or the "American Team". You know, the employees there that are only fluent American speakers.

RolandTD20Kdrummer

American, Canadian, Australian, Mexican, African, German, Albanian, Italian, Peruvian, Chilean, Russian etc etc..

Wtf is this guys problem? It's the name of the damn country for #$%^ sakes...

What more does he want??!?

throat punch this neo-fag boss of yours asap...

Milestone

cornnifer wrote:

Maybe, thats all your boss was getting at... or maybe, he has something up his ass.

I think he has something up his ass.

Abuskedti

Milestone wrote:

I work at a call center. We have a group of Spanish speaking employees, known as the "Spanish Team".

Every single person in this group of 10 people is from Mexico. I know them all and they are great folks.

In a meeting, I referred to them as the "Mexican Team" and was promptly ushered into my boss's office to be written up. He says that was a derragatory statement to call the "Spanish Team". I informed him that they are ALL Mexican, and it is a nationality, not an insult.

By the way, I've spoken to these employees and none of them are insulted. In fact, they find it insulting that my boss considers the term "Mexican" to be derogatory.

Your thoughts?

Thats funny.. my son, when a think a high school sophomore, was telling a story. One of the people in the story was Mexican.. when he said said, "The Mexican" he quickly added, "no offense".

I found that funny. I told him Mexican was not a bad word, but it was probably wise of him not to refer to people by their nationality.

caifan82

I surf a lot of boards with a majority of US posters, and I've seen how 90% of the time the word Mexican is used, it is used in a derogatory sentence: "Dirty Mexican wetbacks", "Damn Mexicans stole my job", "Damn Mexicans ate my baby", etc... It's pretty obvious that for a big part of the US population when someone says the word Mexican, the first thing that pops in their mind is an illegal immigrant. That's just how it is.
This was clearly not the case. And yes, your boss was overreacting. I promess if you call me Mexican, I won't be offended

ballbag

just don't do it again, honky.

CaterinaA

It's very interesting how much more PC developed nations are. Here in South America is perfectly normal to consider as a person's trait his/her nationality. Of course some people will use it in a derogative manner (specially in soccer games), but other than that, it is a non-issue

Off topic, just for the very curious people , we Latin Americans don't actually speak Spanish, we speak Castellano, which comes from the Castile region in Spain (where Queen Isabella the Catholic was from, you know the one that funded Columbus trip).

Peace
Caterina

gabers

CaterinaA wrote:

It's very interesting how much more PC developed nations are. Here in South America is perfectly normal to consider as a person's trait his/her nationality. Of course some people will use it in a derogative manner (specially in soccer games), but other than that, it is a non-issue

Off topic, just for the very curious people , we Latin Americans don't actually speak Spanish, we speak Castellano, which comes from the Castile region in Spain (where Queen Isabella the Catholic was from, you know the one that funded Columbus trip).

Peace
Caterina

I'm so glad that was brought up! My wife is from Peru, and when they ask someone "do you speak spanish?" they don't ask "habla espaniol?" but "habla castellano?" since, after all, what they are really speaking is Castillian, right? There are what, five official languages in Spain?!

my2hands

"i smell cracker"

Pacomc79

CaterinaA wrote:

It's very interesting how much more PC developed nations are. Here in South America is perfectly normal to consider as a person's trait his/her nationality. Of course some people will use it in a derogative manner (specially in soccer games), but other than that, it is a non-issue

Off topic, just for the very curious people , we Latin Americans don't actually speak Spanish, we speak Castellano, which comes from the Castile region in Spain (where Queen Isabella the Catholic was from, you know the one that funded Columbus trip).

Peace
Caterina

Hi Caterina, does that mean you also use different verb conjugations?

CaterinaA

Pacomc79 wrote:

Hi Caterina, does that mean you also use different verb conjugations?

Yes, actually we do. We also use different words to say the same things. How familiar are you with Spanish? Anyway, regarding the verbs I'll post a simple example with the verb ir (To go), simple future tense.

Spaniards conjugate the 2nd person plural the following way:
Vosotros ireis (You will go)

While, most Latin Americans say:
Ustedes irán (You will go)

I'm not sure if you can tell the difference, but hopefully this will give you an (tiny) idea. Any help with Spanish or Castellano, just ask

Caterina

Pacomc79

CaterinaA wrote:

Yes, actually we do. We also use different words to say the same things. How familiar are you with Spanish? Anyway, regarding the verbs I'll post a simple example with the verb ir (To go), simple future tense.

Spaniards conjugate the 2nd person plural the following way:
Vosotros ireis (You will go)

While, most Latin Americans say:
Ustedes irán (You will go)

I'm not sure if you can tell the difference, but hopefully this will give you an (tiny) idea. Any help with Spanish or Castellano, just ask

Caterina

Thanks!

I thought that was the major difference with Castellano I just wanted to make sure.

I haven't studied it in quite a while at one time I was fairly familiar. I'm just a little slow. I understand most of the conversation and i can get around but I'm not very competant. I'm always incredibly impressed with the english knowlege of our english as a 2nd or 3rd language people on the board. You guys are impressive.