ClemenceDane
1 min readJul 4, 2022

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I have almost always worked in all male but me departments since my first real job 20 years ago. I was having lunch with the other guys on the sales team maybe 19 years ago and one of the more obnoxous guys told a blatantly racist joke. I was astounded not only that he thought this was acceptable, but that no one else would say anything. It seemed like something from decades earlier. Without thinking about it, I said, "Chris, that's not cool." The others somehow found that hilarious, and for years all they had to do to make each other laugh was say in a pseudo-serious voice, "Chris, that's not cool," and look at me. I just sort of mentally wrote them off in some final way when this happened. Didn't go to lunch with them anymore and stopped trying to be "one of the guys." These are the same ones I found out later had been hired with a $10,000 higher base salary than me even though they had less experience.

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ClemenceDane

Linguist, philosopher, lover of history, wordhound, 21 year New Yorker, searching for meaning in the universe