Training Session

[shufti]

It was tricky to lure Gene and Javert in, but with a bit of help from Teja, Shufti manages to get them into the office.

That and sending Gene an anonymous note reading:

'One hour training session in the Security office. Free whiskey to follow.'

In the office area she has set up a stand with presentation paper on it, blank so far. Her bump is visible, but not big enough to stop her standing for an hour.

Or however long this takes...

[ooc: Suggested order Teja, Gene and Javert either order, Shufti]

Comments

[shufti]

"Either." Shufti says.

She turns to Javert.

"It means your working relationship with people of other backgrounds - gender, sexuality, race, and so on."

She leans back on the table again.

"Everyone experiences discrimination, one way or another. Teja, any examples?"

[ostro_goth]

"Greeks and Romans thought us Goths 'barbarians' -- worth less than a citizen of the Roman empire," Teja says.

[the_gene_genie]

Gene cannot believe this is happening.

No. He cannot believe this is happening. For a long few moments he just stands still, paper in hand and stares very hard at Shufti.

He feels bad about calling her names before the thing happened at Christmas. But that doesn't warrant this. Nothing warrants this.

'I've got one,' he says, in a calm tone that tends to make people who know him take cover.

'Some little girl standin' in front of me, telling me I'm ignorant just 'cos I come from a different time than everyone else. That's discrimination.'

[shufti]

Shufti listens to both, then nods at Gene. Okay, she can work with that.

"Okay then, Gene, time discrimination. How pissed does it make you feel? You can't change when you come from, or your culture, or the way things are at home. You get sick of people rubbing that against you all the time, telling you how you should be, right?"

She shrugs. "For the record you clearly aren't ignorant. If I thought so I would not waste time."

To Teja. "And how did that affect you, being thought unequal."

[ostro_goth]

"It affected all of us Goths, making us either subjects or slaves or enemies for the Roman empire; we had to fight them or serve them, and would never have had peace and freedom while they were yet strong," Teja says.

[never_shall_yield]

Javert bites back the twitch of a smile at the expression on the Englishman's face when the woman smoothly incorporates his point into the discussion. Yes, it is naive on her part and he does not blame the man for looking further enraged. Still, he is English, and this is amusing.

He ignores Teja's comments, and instead raises his eyebrows at the big policeman slowly - loudly - screwing the piece of paper up in his hand, and letting it drop to the floor. Really, that is the action of a child. But there: English.

[shufti]

"So Teja faced racial and political discrimination." Shufti says, turning the sheet over and writing on the blank one below. "Gene has experienced time discrimination."

She watches Gene screw up the paper. Then, contemplatively, gets the bottle of bribe whiskey, pours him a glass, and sets it in front of him.

"I'm actually not doing this to wind you up, or to tell you what to do; all I'm asking is you think about it for a few minutes. And if by the end nothing has changed I won't bring this up again. Either way I won't bring up anything in here outside this room."

She leans back against the table.

"Mr Javert, can you think of an example, for example, you may have been discriminated against for being French?"

[never_shall_yield]

Javert smirks quietly at the Englishman. He does agree with him about this obsessive need everyone has to insist that modern times are the only way to live, but he is not about to say it. He watches the man's rage escalate - that is a rather impressive shade of red he is going - and feels glad that he has more control over himself.

'For not being French. Not entirely. For being born of criminals, inside a jail. For being a policeman. Would you like a list?'

He is not going to write a list.

'I do not see the point you are trying to make, madame. I concur that it is amusing to ignore his-' he inclines his head towards Gene, '-point, but you are rather missing it yourself.'

He looks to Teja.

'Make her stop.'

[ostro_goth]

Teja shakes his head. "She is making the point that everyone must be the one apart, at one point in their lives of another," Teja says. "So we should not stomp on those that are the odd ones out at the moment. It is an important point to the moderns. Also, how would I make her stop? Shufti is a member of Security, equal to me in rank; I cannot make her stop. Only Melaka Fray could."

[shufti]

"Let me spell out the point." Shufti says, to Javert.

"You see a small boy with a disability, and you call him 'defective' to his face, and when he is upset, say he ought to be 'controlled' rather than apologising. Gene calls the boy a 'good copper' and gives him a curly wurly. You both see the same person, but only the second gets the best from them.

"And at the end of the day, diversity training isn't about telling anyone what to do. It's about arming you to understand people in a way that everything runs a bit smoother; from case leads, to talking people down from violence, to getting people to tell you what you want."

[the_gene_genie]

Gene cannot decide who to glare at more, the obnoxious Frog or the irritating woman. He settles for splitting his gaze between the two. He vaguely listens to what she says, then ignores it.

'You're not French?'

Javert slides his eyes sideways to take him in. 'My mother was Romani. Perhaps my father too, I do not know.'

Gene snorts, and rounds on Shufti. 'I can't believe I'm about to bloody say this, but listen to the gyppo. You're standin' there, spouting off about discrimination, while discriminating against us. That's bloody rich.'

Javert rolls his eyes. Englishmen. All alike.

[ostro_goth]

Teja listens to them, eyes sliding from one to the other. They seem to nicely illustrate the point on one another.

"I know not much about Romani and Gypsies," he says, "as they migrated into Europe only long after our Migration Age; but Gene, I am sure that is not a good word to use. Call a Goth 'barbarian', call Fry 'defective', call a woman a 'bird', call a Romani 'gyppo' -- all words that mean 'those people there who aren't worth much', and that's the point, as far as I can tell?"

He looks at Shufti.

[shufti]

Shufti nods.

"I have no intention of making any of you feel discriminated against, no more than identifying within you what the feeling is like.

"It sucks. It makes you angry. It makes you frustrated. Like standing in front of a couple of guys who consider you worthless and won't listen to anything you say because you're a woman.

"In Borogravia, a woman isn't allowed to read or write. They cannot inherit property or businesses, or dress in boy's clothes. If we violated that, we were locked up in workhouses and kept forever as slaves.

"Yet when we broke the rules, we made just as good leaders, or soldiers, or politicians."

[the_gene_genie]

Gene turns on Teja this time.

'I have never called that lad defective. Got that?'

He wants to be very clear on that. He likes Fry. He doesn't see there's anything wrong with him. And then to Javert;

'Do you care that I called you a gyppo?'

'I am above such petty jibes.'

He jerks his head towards him, while glaring at Shufti. 'There you go, look. He can put his big boy pants on, and take it. I'm only saying what he is. I didn't say anythin' bad about it.'

Though he could have. And he's definitely thinking it. He's only holding back because Teja told him the man used to be a copper.

'You're standin' there, saying we need to be taught to think like other people just because we come from a different time. Listen to me, sweetheart; I talk like I do to any of my lads - or lasses - back home, and none of them have trouble with it. They get treated like coppers, and there's no higher respect I can give 'em. Maybe that's somethin' you should try to understand. Not everyone thinks the same as you do. If I stopped calling 'em names, they'd think they were in trouble.'

It's camaraderie. It's because he's top dog, and that's how you know you're doing a good job. Gene doesn't want a sanitised workplace; he wants everyone in it together. And it bloody works.

[ostro_goth]

"You need not think like them," Teja says, "merely understand that you must not call any here such names, if they are patrons. All that come here are people, even those that technically are not -- and all are equal."

[never_shall_yield]

'That is not honest.'

Javert does not know how not to be honest.

'To think one thing but say another; if there is no reason for this, then it is not justifiable. It is one thing to hold back one's thoughts while investigating a crime; another to purposefully mislead a citizen in everyday discourse. If you hold an opinion, it should be stated. This way, there can be no doubt as to everyone's position.'

Javert has very little inner monologue. He says what he thinks, occasionally at length.

'Everyone is not equal, monsieur. That is the truth of it.'

[ostro_goth]

Again, Teja looks between Gene and Javert. Their contrariness may yet make them get the point.

"Prove why everybody should be unequal, then?" he says.

[never_shall_yield]

'I do not have to prove what simply is.'

Live his life, and tell him he is wrong.

Gene lights another fag, and snaps his Zippo shut with irritation.

'We don't have to prove anythin'. We're not your soddin' dancing monkeys, which is the point, in case you need it spelling out a bit more. You wanna run a bloody seminar on this crap, you prove it.'