Is this racist, should i be concerned.

Okay, i was at work with my two black co-workers, ones my superior and the other my equal. We will call my superior rob and my equal john. We were just working as per usual talking, joking around and what not and they ended up bringing up their children. They both ended up mentioning the ages of their children and to my surprise their children were much closer to my age than they were! I asked them how old they were and was blown away by the answer, they look FAR younger than their years and i made the off hand comment how lucky they were in these very words; you guys are so lucky, you age so well. John immediately pulled the race card and said why does it have to be you guys and i sincerely thought he was joking around a bit as he usually does and i said black people, asians as well all seem to age alot better than white people.. (which in my defense .. they do seem to age alot better than white people generally speaking) He immediately acted offended and tried to get Rob in on it but rob was not offended what so ever and actually agreed with me. John asked to see Robs superior and took this whole ordeal strait to HR (human resources) and is apparently trying to turn Rob (my manager who ive worked with for 2.5 years) against me on the issue and paint me as a racist possibly get me fired and Rob and I both think his end plan is to sue the company. Should i be concerned ?? I meant nothing by it, im NOT a racist.. if anything i meant it as a complement. John and I have always had a good joking demeanor and have joked around quite often.. me being the only white guy working often has actually led to me being the brunt of any racist comments there has been (albeit joking ones). This is the first issue i have ever had to deal with HR about and im quite concerned, i know John is just trying to get an easy buck with a possible lawsuit as we have always joked around and even hung out after work .. but his possible easy buck suing the company could come at the cost of my job . I have been warned by HR not to try to contact John in any way till this is all sorted out . Rob, who was there as well seems to want nothing to do with the whole ordeal and that could possibly hurt Johns plan on possibly suing quite a bit as he didnt see anything racist about the comment at all. WTF, should i be worried? What do you guys think ?

PS sorry for the wall of text i just felt it was needed to provide an accurate back story

 

obv troll is obv, you've never seen a tv show when the black guy says "what do you mean, you people, or you guys?". they're just fucking around with you and successfully trolled.

if by chance they thought you were, hr would open an investigation on you, if you're not racist they'll see.

 

He was trolling i agree .. but him just saying it is one thing .. but thats not what happened he went strait to HR and is trying to make a big deal out of it. The investigation has already been opened Oo
i know im probably just paranoid as i dont feel i did anything wrong, my superior was there and he happens to be black and could vouch that im not a racist and what not, but this is the first thing i have ever really had come up where i had to deal with HR coming into play :\ its hard not to be paranoid when your job and in effect whole lifes being is hanging in the balance to this one asshole trying to milk the company for money.

 

@Lilly Pretty sure HR won't troll you, its kind of their job to be serious.

These days anything can be seen as sexual harassment, Racist, etc. If something is taken the wrong way towards someone its definitely what they claim it to be. I don't think he can sue the company, and depending on the size of company they won't let him either.

Good Luck

 

My mom is in HR at a large company, and i've been there when she is working, they are huge bitches, so be prepared for that.

However, I don't think anything bad will come of this, except possibly a verbal warning if its your first offense in the company.

 

Turn it around on him.

"You're only making the claim that it's racist BECAUSE IM WHITE, That in itself is racist"

Suefest anyone?

 

I'm black and I dont find what you said offensive or racist. Now, people can always argue that what you said was stereotypical but to be honest it wasn't even a stereotypical comment either. Just because you happened to say "you guys _______", it shouldnt have offended anyone. You were categorizing any particular race, you were not putting down anyone, and you weren't being provocative or discriminatory. In fact, it was more a compliment if anything lol.

Would it be racist if someone said "you guys are always late" or "you guys eat fast". Nope. As for HR, you shouldn't be even the slighest worried.

 

I don't think what you said is racist at all.

What I am going to say is probably racist, idk. I grew up with basically only black people and very few white kids. Mostly the black kids liked to pull the race card at EVERY chance. I am native, and since moving back to Saskatchewan, I find native people are like that too out here. They pull the race card every chance they get.

 

That's not racist, just ignorant. Do you really think black people pull the race card every change we get lol?

Oh Zerkerfist, infracted me the other week, he must be a racist!

 

That's definitely not racist, you shouldn't be worried at all.

 

Pfft, people these days. You fine man, they're just trying to make ya sweat. Don't let them get to you.

 

It's exaggeration and generalization to prove a point. Also, you're point is bullshit, this is a forum, I didn't know you're black until I saw your post in this thread.

I grew up in shitty parts of Toronto my whole life, including a bunch of group homes from when I was 10-15. All the black kids were always racist towards the white kids and if you said anything about them, at all, they would pull the race card. Granted they were kids themselves. As I grew up, it didn't change much. All the ghetto "hood" type black people were ready to pull the race card at a moments notice. Right now I live in a small town in Saskatchwan where it's basically just white people and native people (which I am) and all my family/friends here do the same thing. They blame everything on racism.

I am not saying all black people do it, the same as I am a native person who doesn't do it. I will still say that all native people do it though, at least where I live.

 

I suppose the definition of a racist comment is somewhat debatable on the audience, but I don't see what you said as being overtly racist or negative. I wouldn't sweat HR to be honest.

 

Should have posted this earlier, had an interview with HR today they looked through my records with said company and in 2.5+ years of working in a mostly non white warehouse I have not been called a racist by anyone else and they said if i was indeed a racist they think it would have come up before now. Im in the clear it seems, now his ass is on the chopping block Rob (my black manager) who was there at the time really went to bat for me and helped me through this. John the accuser has apparently been an instigator in other issues within the company and is clearly just fishing for a lawsuit of some sort. I know i panicked a bit and feel pretty silly in hindsight over this issue, but it being my first time ever being in any sort of trouble at work (aside from being late once or twice) it really concerned me. Especially it having to do with HR, all i have heard about HR is horror stories and this being a racism issue left me especially paranoid about it. I felt like i was in gradeschool and getting sent to the principals office ahahah. Thanks for the support guys i guess this can be closed