I'm not trying to HOOK UP with the brotha. In professional situations where there are a very limited number of blacks, I've always rolled on the unspoken rule that you acknowledge each other. Just as in the area I live, there are very few black people, so I don't care if I know the person or not on a personal level..if I see another black person walking down the street in a sea of white people, I acknowledge them. I don't have to get into deep conversation or anything like that. A simple "Hello, how are you" will do.
As for homeboy, I acknowledged him when he first started on this project. There are very few black professionals here at the hospital. Some of us go out to lunch as a group from time to time...(kind of on the hush hush, though...we don't want to scare them into thinking we're planning an uprising!!
). Homeboy doesn't roll with us at all...and that's fine...I couldn't care less. However, he certainly does roll to lunch with a whole bunch of white co-workers.
Now, like I said before, I acknowledged him when he first started on this project. Since he was spoken to...of course he spoke back and said hello. But other than that, he can walk right past me and not say one word.
I'm really not tripping off the whole thing. I ain't trying to hook up with the man...heck, I'm married. I just believe that black people need to look out for each other in the workplace...cause you know that the other races do!
Bamboozled... I'm not trying to be buddy buddy with ANYONE at my job. I have one co-worker that I communicate with on a personal level and we have a friendship outside of work. Other than that, I don't care what color a person is...I agree with what you said about being there to do my job and go home. I generally stay to myself at work and don't get into ANY office chit chat and gossip. However, I do have an unspoken camradie with other professional blacks here at the hospital. We all know each other. We are cordial, etc....just common courtesies though and nothing far beyond that other than an occasional lunch (maybe every 3 months or so) In this particular case, homeboy doesn't speak AT ALL...but goes OUT OF HIS WAY to chat it up with other races.