Racist? Or just f***ing stupid?

We had a ‘relief manager’ working with us today. Ginger Graham was at Head Office, and the other senior manager is off sick, so they sent this bald tit over from another store to be in charge for the day. He had that look in his eyes that people get when they’ve had too many sleeping tablets; wandering around like a zombie and taking an extra second for their eyes to focus when they look at you. He had a tattoo of a hornet on his wrist and breath like a horse that’s been eating cowshit.
Considering he was only going to be here for a day, he seemed determined to make an impression. In our weekly lunchtime managers meeting he criticised the advent calendar display in the entrance, then tried to tell us all we should re-arrange the workforce.
He said “I like having black guys work in my warehouse, as they tend to be a lot stronger.” I didn’t know if he was just joking, or trying to get a reaction, so I decided to ignore him and carried on doodling boobs on my notepad. Sarah from the Customer Café picked up on it and started trying to question him and he said “This ain’t prejudice, it’s fact. Their DNA is different. That’s why white guys can never win at sprinting. Using blacks in the warehouse isn’t being prejudiced, it’s being efficient. It’s utilising the best tools at your disposal for the benefit of the whole store.”
By now I was the only person in the room not to have turned bright red with anger or got up and walked out, so I coughed loudly and said “I think this meeting is over.”
We didn’t see him much this afternoon.
And, on a management level, we didn’t get much store-work done either.
We were too busy composing our complaints to Head Office.

RC 4-11-11