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Corporate expects me to dress up for Cinco de Mayo party.....what do i do?

Ryuuroden

Member
Sooooo, this sucks.

Backstory is I own my own business and do a lot of subcontracted work for a big corporation with one of its headquarters in Dallas. I am flying down there this week for a meeting with the executives, higher end employees, and other contractors and venders like me. It is something that company does yearly and its kinda important to attend to be able to bid on jobs and get awarded contracts. So every year depending on what time of the year it is there is usually a culturally related party at the end where you are REQUIRED to dress up in costume. And yes, you guessed it, it is usually tone-deaf at the least and just plain flat racist at the most. Last year was a St Patricks day celebration with people dressing up as fighting drunk Irishmen and leprechauns and shit. This year its gonna be Cinco de Mayo themed. I am NOT looking forward to this, I hate doing this shit, I find it embarrassing and racist.

Despite this, if I want to get the contracts and keep my company busy I have to culturally appropriate another cultures celebration and dress my white ass up. I am not going to raise waves by protesting it because me raising waves will not do shit as my company is no where near big enough to actually cause change and instead I'll just lose business and have to lay off employees. Rather than raise waves I want to dress in a way that's respectful and not playing on stereotypes. Personally I would just rather dress nicely as I normally do as I feel that would be most respectful toward a cultural celebration I am not culturally part of but that wont fly. Am I thinking too hard about this. Should I just wear a Sombrero and a Poncho because that's what they are expecting and will actually probably be the least tone deaf outfit there.....LMAO
(sarcastically laughing in irritation)
. Am I overthinking that these parties are kinda fucked up at least when it comes to being required to dress up in costume? Maybe I am overly sensitive to this stuff due to the circles I keep?
 

jennetics

Member
You don't have to wear anything to celebrate/do something for the Hispanic community. I'd recommend having tacos instead.
 

joe2187

Banned
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commedieu

Banned
Overalls, Sombrero, a strap of tequila and a satchel with bricks/legos for building the wall/conversation starter. Brown face optional heavy mustache is not.


That should really impress them.

Edit:

Take lots of pictures.

Edit:

We won't shame you..
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Just wear a guayabera, that would fly here in San Antonio but we're also not twats like DFW.

That's what I was going to suggest.

Guaybaera, shorts, and sandals. The latter not being authentic, but they don't know that.
 

clemenx

Banned
Have some morals and lose them contracts. Others will come.

Dress normally and bring some coronas and limes, done.
 

Viewt

Member
Yo, that is VERY racist. Please don't do that. Seriously, especially in our current political climate, dressing up as a fucking mariachi or Speedy Gonzalez is hurtful and wrong.
 

double jump

you haven't lived until a random little kid ask you "how do you make love".
yeah this seem borderline to me. I would just wear normal clothes.
 

Borgnine

MBA in pussy licensing and rights management
Everyone here is wrong, you need to escalate the racism to the point that it makes them uncomfortable so they'll see what they're doing is wrong.
 

commedieu

Banned
yeah this seem borderline to me. I would just wear normal clothes.

Lol. Borderline? You know exactly what this party is going to look like. I don't imagine it's a bunch of wealthy out the ass minorities pushing a tone deaf as fuck Cinco DE mayo party.


CHOP CHOP CHOP.
 

TraBuch

Banned
Sometimes in life you have to do shit you're uncomfortable with. If the alternative is putting your business at risk or having to lay off employees, it seems like a pretty easy decision to me. Don't go dressed with face paint or some shit, just wear a sombrero or something.
 
Go in a suit and tie and if anyone asks just say people in Latin countries dress like that.

Just do this. That St. Patrick day shit would piss me off so much if I walked into an office and saw that kind of shit. Start looking for other businesses to work with and get away from these racist assholes.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Lol. Borderline? You know exactly what this party is going to look like. I don't imagine it's a bunch of wealthy out the ass minorities pushing a tone deaf as fuck Cinco DE mayo party.


CHOP CHOP CHOP.

Alternatively, film the whole thing and post it online.
 

commedieu

Banned
Sometimes in life you have to do shit you're uncomfortable with. If the alternative is putting your business at risk or having to lay off employees, it seems like a pretty easy decision to me. Don't go dressed with face paint or some shit, just wear a sombrero or something.

Odd, I never have to do uncomfortable racist stuff.

Going to a racist ass party is seemingly normal for some folks. Probably part of the problems we face in America. Hmm.
 

BasicMath

Member
I think there's plenty of ways to dress up for and celebrate the occasion without being offensive.

Dressing up for the occasion by itself isn't bad. Don't get stuck with that mentality.
 

Ryuuroden

Member
Go in a suit and tie and if anyone asks just say people in Latin countries dress like that.

god, I like this answer a lot considering I was going to do something just like that I just didn't think of such a simple one sentence matter of fact way of explaining it. I can be critical of this party while at same time fulfilling the fucking requirements with that. You can't argue with that unless you want to out yourself as a racist stereotyping dickbag. Most people I meet who are racist don't like to verbally out themselves, they do it with the way they act not by what they say. (Probably because they don't think they are racist as long as they don't say stuff that would out them as racist)
 
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