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CHICAGO, Il. — A first-year employee is threatening legal action against a marketing firm in Chicago over an event that was to take place at their annual holiday party on December 17.
Sarah Foster, 24, was recently hired after a two-year stint in Ethiopia where she utilized her social work degree from Brown University to aid in setting up a running water system for a native tribe that had survived perfectly fine for 200 years without it.
The incident occurred on the Monday morning following Thanksgiving when, upon receiving an evite from the firm’s office administrator inviting Ms. Foster to a “white elephant” gift exchange, Foster brought the issue to human resources in search for a solution for the “cultural insensitivity” she had encountered.
Human resources manager, David Williams, attempted to explain the premise of a white elephant gift exchange but the description apparently fell on deaf ears.
“When I explained to her what the exchange actually was, she remained confused,” Williams explained. “At first I thought she believed that we were actually exchanging white elephants, but I soon learned that she wasn’t interpreting the exchange literally.”
Williams went on to explain that Foster insisted the holiday tradition was racist despite his explanation that the event consisted solely of a hand-to-hand exchange of goods in a predetermined order.
“Elephants are native to Africa, therefore elephants are not white,” Foster told us in an interview held in the company’s breakroom. “It’s typical corporate America whitewashing the world’s culture to make them their own.”
The controversy comes on the heels of a similar dispute in 2014 that forced the company to remove their Christmas tree after a white, Christian employee threatened legal action on the basis that the 4-foot faux tree was a “beacon of religious ignorance.”
Despite canceling the company’s holiday party in 2014, and now this year as well, Williams insists that these “microaggressions” are simple misunderstandings rather than attempts for the “higher-ups” to push their “pro-white agendas.” .
Image via Shutterstock
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Will (Twitter / Instagram) is the host of The Sunday Scaries Podcast.
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The stock photo chick can get it.
Getting turned on by girls in corporate stock photos -PGP
I was actually feeling a bit of sympathy for her until I realized it was a stock photo. I need to be better.
The way things have been lately, I had trouble deciphering if this was real or satire.
I hope everyone realizes that this is satire…
Ah yes, now it does seem a little on the nose.
Less PC more stock photo girls.
Similar thing happened at work to me. Every year we have our “holiday” (can’t say Christmas) party. This year for some reason they wanted ideas for games to play (because apparently that’s what adults actually want to do instead of enjoy an open bar). According to my boss my idea for a game was “Insensitive” and “not workplace appropriate”. Honestly if people really get mad at the word “elf” in a game they shouldn’t be in the adult world they should be in a “safe zone”.
Can’t leave us hanging – what was the game?
Toss the elf…I’m of the belief that it was the elf part that management had an issue with and not the fact that I was clearly suggesting a reenactment of the wolf of wall street.
If you didn’t pick up on the joke after the Ethiopia crack: log off.
And Will maybe thought some of us were smart before reading our comments on this.
We’ve failed him, Rico. But more importantly, Caroline will be disappointed with us.
The fact that many people couldn’t distinguish this article as satire is unnerving on a couple levels. Mainly that as a society we’ve reached the point where this type of person is not only plausible, but prominent in the news.
And even encouraged now….
I was expecting a few more Hemingway references out of this piece
So she is saying there are only black people in Africa? That’s not really racist, (just like white elephant isn’t racist) but it is extremely indicative how of badly both public and private (Ivy League) schooling have failed her.
She probably has over $200,000 in student loans, and didn’t learn anything except to play the victim. What a dumbass.
I don’t think she’s real…