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On Teaching Mandatory Harassment Seminars in Visalia

by Johannes Lichtman

I. What is harassment? The break room is a large under-furnished gray cube in the back of a slaughterhouse. Nine folding chairs form an omega; I stand at the inlet, next to a television on wheels. I wear a white collared shirt with the tie loosened, and as I unbutton my cuffs and peel up the sleeves, I take a moment to check out my class. Seven men and two women. The women—one maybe twenty, the other pushing sixty—wear knee-length skirts, pantyhose, and black pumps with matching purses dangling off their chair-backs. The men wear overalls that look dirty, not from blood or guts, but from a lack of washing.

Two onion-colored twins with Marine haircuts sit at the peak of the omega, arms crossed, and an old man with almond skin stares at the spot right above my head. Everybody here is White or Mexican. This is good. The less diversity, the less people try to ask questions to sound sensitive. (Though that’s usually more of problem in the college towns—Davis, Chico, Santa Cruz—than it is here.)

I give a brief introduction and an overview of the seminar, before asking, “Can anyone tell me what it means to harass a fellow team member?”

A squat kid with a goatee, maybe twenty-three or twenty-four, a few years my junior, raises his hand. I call on him and ask him his name. He introduces himself as Danny.

“Great,” I say and nod. “So Danny, what does it mean to harass a fellow team member?” Before Danny can answer, Smith speaks up. Smith is a balding man with a gravelly voice and a patch on his chest that reads, Smith. He is the only one with a nametag, and I find myself wondering if he kept his overalls from a prior job.

“One definition,” he says, “would be calling a team member a dirty Jew.”

“I didn’t call you no dirty Jew!” Danny says. “I was just asking you why we have to say ‘happy holidays’ when everyone celebrates Christmas anyway, and you don’t even celebrate no Hanukkah.”

Smith responds, “You said, ‘Merry Christmas, you dirty Jew.’” He shakes his head. “Dirty Mexican.”

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