Sexual Harassment and Bros- New Job Shenanigans

I am a Mid 20s, Latina/Native-American looking woman, in a world where women make 70 cents on the dollar compared her male counter parts.  White men are presidents.  They make up the casts of entire movies.  They run most companies.  They make the rules and the rules suit them.  

My body can grow and feed other humans and because it can it is expected to do so by most men.  Over time we ladies have just ended up at the bottom of shit.  I think it is because we prefer not to kill and injure things.  We are too busy giving life to shit.    

Third day of my new job- I sit in the middle of the room so I can see most of the room and have access to the door.  I sit next to a guy that I haven’t sat next to before because I am trying to be outgoing and win at this new job.  This guy’s bro sits in front of him.  Then another bro of theirs sits next to that new bro.  I am suddenly the 4th corner in this square of white bros.  Oh Lordissa.  The bro that is diagonal to me is a blond bro.  He is the head of the bros and he has peer pressured his fellow men into being bros for the day by association.  The slightly geeky guy and the fat guy have to be this guy's bros so they can keep their manhood intact.  

The day goes alright.  I am quick and I am focused and there is limited interaction with the bros.  We work in small groups only a few times; bros cubed and the ethinicly ambiguous girl.  

During one exercise the broiest of the bros is messing around and waisting our time.  I tell him to hurry up so we can finish our task.  His fellow bro looks at me and says, “Ooooh, you’re a sassy one.”  I almost punched him in the neck.  I knew a blow to the trachea would really hurt and I wanted to hit him so bad.  I think I gave him a look that said, “I mean business.  Shut up.”  We all carried on with the group work.  

I have a problem with sassy/spicey ethnic woman jokes/comments/stereotypes.  I am a serious professional person that my father raised to do my best and give 200%.  I will smoke you on any job.  Watch me do it.  When a man is serious in this department, he is a hard worker and good man.  When a woman does this, best case scenario- she is feisty, worst case scenario- she is a giant bitch on wheels.  So if you want to get me, a serious worker who will give you a professional pounding and make you look like an incompetent idiot, on your bad side- just go ahead and call me sassy.  

A bit later, the bro who called me sassy was in the washroom.  I dropped my pencil and bent down to get it.  The rotund bro, my table mate for the day, almost elbowed me in the face on accident as I was on my way up from retrieving my pencil.  He was very apologetic and kind and relieved that he did not injure me.  He is a kind bro at heart.  We laughed it off and I told him to forget about it.  No harm, no foul.  Lead bro, turned around to put his nose in our business to see what we were laughing about.  Rotund bro says, “Dude, I almost just nailed her right in the face with my elbow.  It woulda been so bad.”  I was trying to harness my inner bro (the one who likes beer and pork rinds and bowling and burping and farting and large sweatpants) and I said, “Don’t worry.  I have an older brother.  I got nailed in the face plenty of times before.”  Lead bro leans into rotund bro and says with a smirk, “I bet she’s been nailed in the face before.”  They laughed heartily.  My brows furrowed with worry, shock, and questions.  I turned to lead bro and said, “That is disgusting.”  I was pretty sure I knew what he meant by saying that.  I assumed he was referring to getting hit in the face with sperm- not work appropriate.  I told him, plainly, that his comment was disgusting, and I was also fishing to see if he would explain himself or apologize.  But all he did was laugh more.  This is a workplace- this is a school we were in.  So I said, “I am pretty sure I could get you in trouble for saying that.”  I was fishing for more info at this point and I wanted to see if he was saying what I thought he was saying.  He didn’t deny it.  He didn’t apologize.  He just kept laughing harder.  He did mean this joke in a sexual way.  He wasn't sorry about it. 

I also saw him gawking at a girl and giving her attention she really didn’t want.  And he of course didn’t stop (Google: Schrodinger’s Rapist).  I felt disgusted about the whole thing and I was able to change seats after lunch.  When I sat next to this new person she gave me her condolences for having to sit with the bros I was sitting with previously (even she knew from across the room that those guys where all bad news).  I suddenly dreaded the fact that this lead bro might be at my work site and I felt really bad for any woman he would work with in the future.  These 2 things prompted me to think that I should maybe tell someone about what happened- like my boss or HR.  I wasn’t sure though because I wondered if I was being over sensitive and I was also afraid for some reason.  I was afraid that no one would believe me or that they would blow it off.  I told my husband what happened and he was pissed.  He works for lawyers and they have zero tolerance for this kind of thing.  He was shocked that we had no sexual harassment training (we still haven’t and I don’t think we will).  He encouraged me to email my boss (a woman).  I emailed my boss and she set a meeting with me and her and HR.  

In my meeting with HR (an older woman), I told them everything and I told them that I wanted to be honest and transparent.  I won’t go into the details about the meeting but, long story short, the HR person told me that what happened did not constitute sexual harassment, nor was it really harassment at all.  She reduced it to a joke that I interpreted one way because I was sensitive.  

I regretted saying anything.  Deep regret. 

She gave me a few options and none of them really made me happy because none of them could be anonymous.  I voiced my fear about retaliation and she gave me this whole lecture about professionalism and about how retaliation would not be tolerated.  But all I could think of was - but you are tolerating sexual harassment so retaliation may be tolerated, too.

Ugh.  

They kept telling me that they “take things like this very seriously” but then they didn’t take it seriously.  I walked out of the meeting feeling demoralized and alone and angry.  I walked out of there thinking- I would have encouraged my friends and my future daughter to tell her bosses what happened, telling is the right thing to do.  I did “the right thing.”  Yet nothing good came from it.  This guy is going to continue to do this in the workplace because it is obvious he thinks it is ok.  He has never been seriously held accountable for it, and I have this strange feeling that he never will.  I also felt really betrayed by the 2 women in this meeting with me- my boss’s boss and the head HR lady.  I tried to justify it in my  head by thinking- this older woman doesn’t know what this joke means- but she could have asked me what it meant.  I tried to and I still try to explain it all away- both the joke and how HR handled it.  I have not been successful.  This is a really great microcosm of white male privilege and the patriarchy and all that awful bullshit.  This type of thing just cements the fact that I will always feel out of place and really isolated and that I am not welcome here, in white-male-America.  I truly don’t belong.  I hate that that fucker gets more money than me for half the work.  I hate that I am upstanding and respectful and bright and that in an interview he would get picked over me (statistically speaking).  After the HR meeting I was very numb.

I came home and told my husband and he was shocked and angry.  At his workplace people get fired for less.  I am not sure what I wanted to happen or what I expected to happen.  I guess I just wanted some accountability.  I think I wanted him to get a firm talking to- maybe get pulled aside and warned and a letter in his file.  I am sure that with his "firm talking to" he would not have known what incident they were talking about because I found out later that he had done this to another person.  I told a new work friend that I had to go meet with HR about some harassment and she instantly guessed who it was.  She told me that she gotten the creeps from him because she heard him make an inappropriate comment to someone about their mouth and how they drank from the water fountain.  

In this story there are so many things that went wrong.  At least 3 other people (the one I saw him gawking at, the hearer of the drinking fountain joke, and the receiver of the drinking fountain joke) did not see that it was important to mention to HR that this guy was out of line.  I won’t mention it to HR because those are not my stories to tell.  But I sure wish they would have.  Who knows what else this guy said or did?  I hate that women have been socialized to accept this type of behavior.   

I have a hard time being angry on my own behalf.  It is always delayed.  I tell myself I am ok and I carry on.  It hits me later that something really shitty happened to me.  Today my husband and I were walking in a very rich suburb.  Like this suburb is so rich I feel very uncomfortable being there.  Then my husband joked about me being the only brown person in the area and that they need to watch out for me because I am probably trouble (he was joking but it was also kind of true- I bet some people did think that- and so I nervously laughed).  We were  crossing the street when this SUV with 4 white, polo shirt wearing, guys yells out at us, “Hey! Could you go any slower?!”  And they laughed and squealed their tires as they drove away.  For some reason, with my raw nerves from this week, some fresh and tender wounds, and the fact that it was a car full of bros, plus my ever present feeling of never belonging- I had to hold back tears.  My husband knew I was upset and he tried to comfort me.  I just wanted to enjoy our time together so I tried to distract myself.  But it just made me so angry.  I was having a very long, internal, rant about how much I dislike white men.  I mean, I can count on 1 hand how many white guys I think are acceptable and that I trust.  But I also know that my hate contributes to the pool of hate that is ever growing in the universe and I try my best not to contribute to that.  I am having a lot of feelings.  

I am exhausted by all of this.