Possible Racial Bias with Redundancy

nora_nora

Well it certainly would appear you have managed to rub people up the wrong way but as far as making a case stick with racial bias i really think you are going to struggle with this. I don't see you getting the outcome you are looking for.

Ditzy_Mitzy

If anything the wording of the emails would appear to weaken the case for identity based discrimination.  'the battle that is' and 'angry' suggest difficult working relationships and nothing more.  If nothing explicitly discriminatory comes out in the heat of the moment, when the alleged perpetrator's defences are down, then perhaps nothing discriminatory will ever come out.  One explanation for it never coming out is that the perpetrator doesn't hold discriminatory beliefs.  
Years ago I had a conversation with a black bouncer about an incident in which he was 'threatened' by a white punter, as much as a scrawny middle aged man can threaten a well-built, experienced bouncer anyway.  Nothing came of it other than the white man using some coarse language.  The words used were intended to be insulting, granted, but nothing said could be construed as racist.  The bouncer did not feel the language was racist either, it was merely insulting.  Or at least an attempt to be insulting.  
The point is that the irritated punter, were he a racist, was presented with the ideal opportunity to be racist.  Here was a black man he wished to insult.  A racist would reach straight for a word from his discriminatory lexicon.  But our man didn't.  He said various things but none were related to race.  The black bouncer concluded that the white man wasn't a racist. 
Same here, perhaps.  The sender of the email is letting of steam and expressing feelings about the OP which may be described as negative; but they don't appear, in context, to be discriminatory.  Perhaps one might draw the same conclusion as the bouncer: displeasure about the OP is being expressed, but it's not racist and there's nothing to suggest the one expressing it is racist.  

Manxman_in_exile

Bungle5393 said:

1 - "Do you want me to feed back to him or are you going to meet up? I can put something together and get his peers to give me something - more likely to do that than face the battle that is KOSDOT"
2 - "I thought the email from the employee was going to be a complaining one about the new training or something, but appears to be perfectly reasonable. Defintely angry KOS DOT at play here...."

Have to say I agree with most of the others here.  If I saw that written about myself I'd be far more concerned about the references to "... than face the battle that is KOSDOT" and "Definitely angry KOSDOT at play here..." than I would be about getting to the bottom of what KOSDOT means.  To me, those phrases are sure signs that your employers/colleagues see you as a bit of a problem, and that they are even a bit wary of you.  If I suddenly found out out of the blue that that was how I was perceived, I'd be shocked.  Weren't you?

As somebody else posted, one of the dangers of SARs is that the person making the request may discover they were not so fondly regarded or so highly thought of as they thought they were.

Unlike some of the others, I have no doubt that in principle it is possible for someone to be discriminated against on the grounds of being Scottish (or Irish, or Welsh, or even English in Scotland or Wales) but you will have an enormously difficult job of proving it happened here.

(Out of curiosity, I think you've said you live in Scotland, but are you Scottish?)

caprikid1

I think the opinion is clear, learn from this and move on.

eamon

I wonder what geographical speaking accent the OP has. Is it the softer almost lilting Orcadian as opposed to the harsher sounds often heard in the West of Scotland? Is the vernacular at play here? If it is then the OP may be on to something.

nora_nora

Manxman_in_exile said:

Bungle5393 said:

1 - "Do you want me to feed back to him or are you going to meet up? I can put something together and get his peers to give me something - more likely to do that than face the battle that is KOSDOT"
2 - "I thought the email from the employee was going to be a complaining one about the new training or something, but appears to be perfectly reasonable. Defintely angry KOS DOT at play here...."

Have to say I agree with most of the others here.  If I saw that written about myself I'd be far more concerned about the references to "... than face the battle that is KOSDOT" and "Definitely angry KOSDOT at play here..." than I would be about getting to the bottom of what KOSDOT means.  To me, those phrases are sure signs that your employers/colleagues see you as a bit of a problem, and that they are even a bit wary of you.  If I suddenly found out out of the blue that that was how I was perceived, I'd be shocked.  Weren't you?

As somebody else posted, one of the dangers of SARs is that the person making the request may discover they were not so fondly regarded or so highly thought of as they thought they were.

Unlike some of the others, I have no doubt that in principle it is possible for someone to be discriminated against on the grounds of being Scottish (or Irish, or Welsh, or even English in Scotland or Wales) but you will have an enormously difficult job of proving it happened here.

(Out of curiosity, I think you've said you live in Scotland, but are you Scottish?)

Exactly. I'd be more concerned that I'm seen as angry and troublesome & be asking myself why people may have that perception of me. 

nora_nora

eamon said:

I wonder what geographical speaking accent the OP has. Is it the softer almost lilting Orcadian as opposed to the harsher sounds often heard in the West of Scotland? Is the vernacular at play here? If it is then the OP may be on to something.

Accent hasn't been mentioned at any point. All I'm seeing is that he is thought to be angry and a bit bothersome.

Manxman_in_exile

noitsnotme said:

thebrexitunicorn said:

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

The Isle of Man isn't in the UK and never has been, so I suppose you are technically of a different nationality to someone born in the UK itself.  On that basis you might be able to claim discrimination based on that; the protected category encompasses race, colour and nationality.  'Scottish' isn't a separate nationality legally speaking, therefore wouldn't fall under the same protections.  

I’d be interested to know the case law or legislation that you are referring to.   I understand that race discrimination can be claimed on the basis of national origin. If a Welsh person working elsewhere in the UK was dismissed because their manager didn’t like Welsh people it could certainly be challenged as unlawful race discrimination.

OP I don’t know how likely your claim would be to succeed, there isn’t enough information to hazard an opinion. You could speak to an employment law solicitor for a legal opinion. If you believe your Scottish nationality contributed to your dismissal then yes you can raise a claim under the Equality Act if you wish. 

You’re right - https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/protected-characteristics/race-discrimination/

So does that mean despite being white British I can call myself ‘mixed race’ because I have Irish ancestry? 🤷‍♂️

You can call yourself what you like because the categories have become meaningless.  There's no such thing as "race" (or "mixed-race") - it's only in use because at the time that "discrimination" began to be recognised, "race" was a commonly accepted term that appeared to be "useful" in describing different peoples.

Call yourself whichever one you think most applies.  (Or call yourself anything!)

The more splintered these groups become, the more divisive they become.

Apparently there are 90+ "distinct" ethnic groups in China.  Apart from identifying which group to discriminate against next, I'm not sure there's much value in having that knowledge. 

Manxman_in_exile

eamon said:

I wonder what geographical speaking accent the OP has. Is it the softer almost lilting Orcadian as opposed to the harsher sounds often heard in the West of Scotland? Is the vernacular at play here? If it is then the OP may be on to something.

Wit are ye on aboot, Jimmy?  The West coast Scottish accent is the softest most lilting in the worl'!  Ye don't mean Glasgae d'ye?

Manxman_in_exile

Apologies to anyone who found the previous post offensive in any way...