TB really is a thing in India (https://www.who.int/india/health-topics/tuberculosis).
I know there's a lot of stigma regarding TB in India (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147274) and there may still be some remaining colonial stereotypes of India as inherently 'diseased' - perhaps that's why it struck a nerve?
Absolutely! It's also associated with tons of markers of social location (poverty, housing, substance use, mental health, diet etc) which could play a big role as well.
It’s called “Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG)”. I’m in the US so it’s not widely used here anymore—TB is pretty much eradicated—but it is used in countries where TB is more common.
Also it interferes with the standard testing for TB. Medical professionals here have to be tested routinely via Mantoux for TB and that will result in a false positive if you have been vaccinated.
Everyone had them as kids in the UK when I was growing up. The jabs would swell up the upper arm painfully and leave a scar. So of course, kids would go around punching each other on the arm right after their shots.
Oh yes. Huge problem. Over 2 million cases and several **hundred thousand deaths** a year. And they're not getting it under control either. It decreased temporarily during Covid, most likely due to social distancing and/or mask use, but increased year-on-year every single year since then, and is now higher than before Covid.
The other person themselves admitted they have no idea. I don’t even know why people like that answer questions. It’s like those Amazon questions where a person replies to a topic not addressed to them and says “I don’t know”
About one in four people have TB across the entire world, but in the US TB is relatively rare. Most of the people with TB in the US were born in another country with much higher rates of TB. India is the third most common country that people living in the US with TB but born in another country originated from [per the CDC] (https://www.cdc.gov/tb/statistics/reports/2022/demographics.htm).
I’m a community health nurse in the U.S. and run a TB clinic. I had an Indian born patient who had latent TB (exposed at some point but not active and not able to spread it). We recommended he do the 4 months of meds to kill it and keep it from turning active and contagious. He refused because he goes back to India for a few months every year and works with the poor and was positive he would be exposed all over again. And he was probably right. Not much use getting treated if you know you’ll get it again. It’s that common there, especially among the poor.
When it's malicious, it's offensive. When it's said as a joke about a person who constantly coughs and the speaker has zero reason to know anything about a very specific regional issue? There's no need to get offended, just say "hey, many Indians would take offense because there is actually an issue with and a stigma against TB in India."
Seriously, it's information I've never heard or read about and I live and work in the Seattle area, the 11th highest Indian-American population in the US. I've dated Indian-American women, have Indian-American friends and have done projects for Indian-Americans. When I worked in the tech industry contracting for Microsoft, there were tons of Indian-Americans I came into contact with. I've never once heard of TB being an issue in India.
I do recognize TB in India is an issue, just pointing out that it's not exactly common knowledge.
My husband got to that point in the game and I was next to him, reading and not really paying attention until I realised what was happening and I started crying...not invested in the game at all but it was so sad!
I bought my first gaming laptop during covid just to be able to run this game. Had been wanting to play it for years but just didn't have the hardware. Had religiously avoided literally any spoilers, I didn't even know the main character's name, and obviously hadn't played the first game.
Laptop arrived the literal day before I tested positive and had to take a week off and quarantine. Binged the full 60 hours in about four days. Just couldn't stop pushing forward. I was desperate to save him and I was certain the game would let me.
I was completely wrecked. Devastated. It took me far longer to recover from that game than from the Rona.
One of the best pieces of storytelling I have ever experienced in any medium.
Well they are idiots. Before I start ranting, maybe I should mention that I am an Indian as well.
Sure TB is a problem in India, but so is GERD, Piles, Pancreatitis, literally any disease , Google says it is common in India. That’s mostly because of the 1 billion population.
Btw , this is by no means racism . I lived in the Middle East for a decade since my parents worked there, I’ve seen and heard shit , most people won’t even believe. Ranges from Arabs saying all Indians are ugly, to arabs wanting separate canteen etc
However I’ve met Arabs who are really nice, well educated and mannered . So we can’t generalise
but I would say rest easy my friend. Those guys seem to be divas lol.
Those things you mentioned aren't easily contagious like TB. The stigma attached to them can't be the way TB has. Secondly, It is common in India. Don't downplay it by saying we have 1 bn population. There are huge programs against TB by the government, advertising and campaigns for it's treatment, dedicated hospitals and TB departments etc. Also Arabs being racist towards Indians shouldn't be an excuse for anybody else's behaviour.
I side with the OP here, whose remark was wrongly interpreted but your comment has a lot of inaccuracies that needs to be pointed out.
Reminds me of when i was in Paris and would always greet this african-american with "Hey boy! What's up?!"
Found out later 'boy' was a derogatory term for black people.
Dude just let me be casually racist while giving me the biker handshake.
Maybe he knew my french-canadian idiot ass was ignorant of it.
To be fair, regardless of race, as a grown man, I wouldn't be happy with someone I'm not particularly close to calling me "boy". Its kind of condescending.
Honestly wondering about the use of African American here - did you know him to be from the US or do you just call people who live in Europe Americans?
One day when I was in college I showed up to my classroom and the previous class was still going. The rest of my class showed up and they still hadn't come out. The professor showed up and asked what was going on. I said, "there's a bunch of actuarial majors in there" and she got genuinely upset that I had just assumed their major. But, like, I knew roughly a third of them personally.
She was generally regarded as a bit of a loon, but she was unavoidable for a couple of classes in my major.
"Did you just *assume* those people's majors?!???" /offended
Wow, I've never heard of anyone being offended over this before. Assuming gender, sure. But assuming majors??
Tbf everytime someone in my friend circle gets some minor ailment we generally speak about them as if they got cancer and died, so I can understand OPs tuberculosis joke
Today a coworker was having a coughing fit and I said "get it together we don't your tuberculosis" which made her laugh and cough more. It's not unusual at all for my coworkers and friends to say they have the plague whenever they have a cold. The other day a coworker was sneezing and said "ahh that's the consumption acting up again"
I say the Plague whenever someone (like 1 particular coworker) is constantly sick...I guess next time I'll just have to make sure they're not from England
I have a cold at the moment and I'm currently dying of the Plague. This has been an ongoing joke for the last ten years. I should point out that it's not the Plague™ because that's meant something else for the last four years.
It might seem funny in an offhand comment, but my husband has a persistent cough due to various allergies, and he is very conscious of how people look at him like he is the next Typhoid Mary. I recently had to have him drive me to some medical appointments, and he was feverishly sucking on cough drops to try and help the tickle in his throat.
Any time someone in my house gets sick i call the dog "typhoid Remi" because she has no understanding of leaving the sick person alone so she gets herself contaminated and then trys to get pets from the healthy people.
As an asymptomatic carrier the dog is definitely a typhoid mary, atleast in her case she isn't infected its just probably on her fur.
The older I get, the more I’ve found that it’s just not worth it to complain about specific people. Especially at work. You think you have a grasp of the total social situation but in reality you’re always shit talking someone’s friend or the people you’re talking to think you’re being a bitch. Even if they’re engaging with you and seem like they agree. People are just afraid of conflict and will go with the motions. Then they’ll be talking about you behind your back.
This, you should have kept the shit talking about the colleague limited to his actual professional shortcomings, the TB comment was weird at the very least. If this guy has genuine respiratory issues, making fun of that is a low blow.
For a long time, there has been a stereotype that people from poorer countries bring disease with them , so brown immigrants are especially sensitive to this stereotype.
Well, if the colleague is coughing all over the co-worker, they have a very valid complaint.
I don't care why you are coughing, either stay home or wear a mask.
Agreed they have a valid complaint, disagree with the way they approached it. In general it’s bad form to shit talk, OP should have told off the cougher more directly rather than make weird jokes behind his back.
One winter--when my HS band director would cut us off during practice--as soon as his baton was down, wracking coughs from a school-wide illness erupted throughout the band. He goes, "Sounds like a TB ward up in here". We could only smile and nod in agreement as we tried to breathe.
We did this shit in our lab all the time. Usually I was the target and I found it funny, definitely not an insult. But then again, we are super weird...
If you are joking around friends who are coworkers and you all have the same sense of humor that’s one thing. Saying it about someone meant as an insult behind their back to coworkers you are only “friendly” with? 😬
Every time someone I know well is sick or getting sick, I tell them to stop sucking so much homeless dick behind the dumpster at Wendy's. I'd say the TB joke is mild in comparison.
I'm a white Canadian, and I've had both tuberculosis and typhoid. People knew I was sick, but nobody joked about me being Typhoid Mary. And nobody suspected TB, even though looking back it was obvious.
Bring them all together, explain that it's just a phrase you use and you had no idea about TB in India, and apologize for the offense. If they're still weird about it, that's on them. Most people genuinely are not racist or phobic or whatever, people just say stuff and sometimes it lands wrong. People need to attribute these things to ignorance instead of malice, and then educate calmly under the assumption that the person genuinely just does not know.
Eh give it time, they will see that you didn't mean any harm in the long term.
And yeah TBC is a massive issue in various part of Asia. It is even worse in central Asia.
My wife and I use tuberculosis as a go-to expression for sickness as well. For us, it's like an inside joke from anime characters always seeming to die from TB.
I honestly had no idea it was a common sickness anywhere in the world anymore.
Basically, I can definitely see us being in your situation.
I say it a lot whenever someone has a bad cough. I am a germophobe and TB is perhaps the worst respiratory disease you can possibly have so it's a flippant/comical exaggeration of their illness which is likely a cold.
> I say that flippant phrase all the time if someone's coughing a lot or seems to be sick for a long time no matter where they're from
That's the real TIFU. making light of someone else's health problems. I find it incredible that you went this long without someone being offended if you commonly said this.
Sorry man, but IMO you did FU a bit, that’s not something you say in a workplace. I’m guessing you work in a white collar role and folks can be quite sensitive to this kind of remark.
I would have handled this differently by talking to the team manager, and would recommend you should still do that. Come clean, say you F’ed up and ask your manager how you can make it up.
Regardless of the specific insult, it’s almost never worth shit talking a coworker to another coworker. Even if it creates a favorable situation for you, you’re setting up a hostile environment for the other.
And that’s the best case scenario. More often then not, you think you know who your audience is, but in reality, they’re friends with the guy too. So now they just think you’re an asshole. This can be the case even if it seemed like they were going along with it. People don’t like confrontation.
Damn, I didn't know that stigma existed either. All I knew about was the scammer, tele-technician, or "bobs vagene" stereotypes (there's others that I thought of, but I'm boozed up and my brain decided to forget them and I for the life of me cannot remember them). I'm sorry that this happened to you, and I hope they come around to realize it had nothing to do with his race. I would say just keep being your friendly self to them, don't hide from it, and sel-awareness about the incident would help; hell, maybe even a teensy weensy healthy dose of self-degradation. For example, "Fuck, guys, I'm seriously so sorry about my TB comment the other day. I honestly have never heard of the racial stigma about the Indian people and TB. Had in your shoes and had I known of the stigma, I would've just said something along the lines of, 'I'm always partnered with him, and he just sits there and watches me without contributing, and coughing his whatever-the-fuck he has of the day all over me." Lol. Just keep on trucking on into the dawn as you, and hopefully, it'll all sort itself out. I would suggest having a lil talk with all the people you work with at a convenient time, preferably where you can speak to them all at once (publicity in owning up to your honest mistake shows a lot of credibility, accountability, and helps mend relationships), to explain that you genuinely had no idea of the stigma, and also had no ill will at heart. Hope everything works out for you, muh dood!😁👍
I don’t say this very often at all, because it’s usually not the correct take on the situation. But your coworkers are being ridiculous and hypersensitive. They’re assuming the rest of the world is as aware of the TB issue in India as they are. I actually was aware of TB in India before, but I’ve never heard anyone actually use it as a racial slur of some sort. I’m sure someone does, but this is not an established thing you should have known about.
People often use TB as a dramatic analogy for a cough. It isn’t malicious. It isn’t directed at anyone in particular. It isn’t a disease that seems real to a lot of first world people. It seems like something from a dramatic Victorian novel. Yes that’s ignorant, but it also means it comes from a place of *having no clue* about TB, TB rates in different countries, which groups are more likely to carry it, or how awful TB really can be. They can’t be malicious with it, because they don’t even know the possibility is there.
Don't you know that people (white especially) have to know every little thing about every single culture on Earth (especially the most fringe since they are like minority squared) in order to make sure that they don't say anything that can be construed as offensive?
Why did you have to joke about him having TB though? It sounds like a pretty nasty comment towards a colleague. I get that you dislike him but you’ve got to be careful about the way you gossip about colleagues to other colleagues
It's pretty common to jokingly exaggerate a disease.
E. G. I am out sick today and told my team that my partner traveled last weekend and brought home plague. I do not actually think she has plague, nor do I believe my team thinks that I have plague. I think OP meant it the same way.
People downvoting you are missing the point. It’s basically never worth shit talking about a coworker to other coworkers. At best you’re creating a hostile environment for the person you’re complaining about. At worst you’re creating a hostile environment for everyone.
People might be laughing at your shit talk while you’re talking to them, but more often than not I’ve found that they actually just think you’re an asshole. It’s not worth it.
I feel like this may be unfair on their part if you explained everything. At least in the US, I've never once heard anything about Indians and TB, and like most people I've heard a LOT of foul stuff about Indians unfortunately. I wonder if this is one most people are even aware of comparatively.
I had an Indian friend in school and I thought we were pretty good friends. After like a year of knowing him, he tells me that he thought I didn't like him for a while because apparently every time we shook hands, I shook his hand with my left hand..
Simple solution; tell them you're sorry - you've always said the TB comment if someone is coughing/ill for a long time, regardless of who they are and where they come from, and you didn't realise it was viewed as a negative stigma/stereotype by Indian people. Tell them you genuinely meant no offence and genuinely do not think poorly of them - you were just ignorant and you're frustrated with that one guy in particular.
Imo THEY are the problem. You were criticizing one person and they got unnecessarily insecure about that. That's why I hate minorities who are pretending they are victims of all suffering. They are often nitpicking everything, if you complain about someone's behavior, they call you racist etc. Wish people were not like that. But they often are. THEY are highlighting their skin color, nationality and other thing just to start drama or just be mad at someone, when the conversation has nothing to do with these.
Lol tuberculosis is a worldwide problem. It regularly pops up everywhere, even after going away, and is extremely infectious. Every hospital and every quick care have contingency plans for an outbreak and often ask you if you've been exposed. They were ignorant of this fact and were inadvertently racist to you.
The problem is that no matter how right you are, they won't care. Trying to defend yourself further may only complicate the problem. You could solicit every medical office in your city, get their info on tuberculosis, present it to them, and they would deny the reality of it. Common group-thinking that pertains to all humans.
It absolutely is everywhere. I've never even left the US and I still have to get yearly screening for TB. I'm considered low risk, but due to my line of work it's required.
Just ignore them and carry on. I got accused of being racist when I used the ol' "you people" line. Apparently race is the only demographic you can discriminate against.
That's a fuckin weird and stupid thing to just regularly or at all use as a joke either way. Your use of the word "flippant" you think makes it sound better but it doesn't do that at all.
Just say “trying to cough up a lung or something” from now on. I have lung cancer. It’s accurate and I wouldn’t be offended in any way. 😊
Conspiracy theory: Maybe secretly they are staying away because you work with the guy who is sick all the time and don’t want to bring it home
That's part of my thinking. Maybe they also think he's lazy, knows he's always late and they don't want to deal with it so they stick him with OP.
They just caste you away.
Should have kept Mumbai their side.
Should not have complained about the Sikh colleague.
Just might have to curry some favour from them now
OP should start by ordering lunch for everyone from that New Delhi.
They where having Naan of it
Sari/not sari.
Or just become a recluse, never leaving his Desh.
His coworker should Goa to a doctor.
After all it was just a bit of argy-bhaji.
Oof, that's good.
Hopefully he gives them all a good chapati on the back for a job well done
Naan.
CurryT be that they are just overreacting?
This man and his Punjab... Smh
That is hilarious! You should do standup! Or write for comedy movies/tv
Hindu messed up
Hit the nail right on the dot not feather.
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While we’re here: Is tuberculosis really a big problem in India?
TB really is a thing in India (https://www.who.int/india/health-topics/tuberculosis). I know there's a lot of stigma regarding TB in India (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147274) and there may still be some remaining colonial stereotypes of India as inherently 'diseased' - perhaps that's why it struck a nerve?
Thank you! It may have a stigma because it’s highly contagious and airborne.
Absolutely! It's also associated with tons of markers of social location (poverty, housing, substance use, mental health, diet etc) which could play a big role as well.
Which makes no sense; anyone can get tuberculosis, although there is a vaccine.
It's not a matter of who can, it's a matter of who does
What kind of vaccine can you get for TB?
It’s called “Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG)”. I’m in the US so it’s not widely used here anymore—TB is pretty much eradicated—but it is used in countries where TB is more common.
Anyone who has been in a US jail will get one. I did during my first stint.
I believe it used to be required, like the smallpox vaccine. (P.S. I hope things are better for you now.)
Military too, especially if they're sending you overseas
BCG isn’t standard of care in the US because of poor efficacy, not because of herd immunity
My comment makes no mention at all of “herd immunity”.
Also it interferes with the standard testing for TB. Medical professionals here have to be tested routinely via Mantoux for TB and that will result in a false positive if you have been vaccinated.
The bcg
Everyone had them as kids in the UK when I was growing up. The jabs would swell up the upper arm painfully and leave a scar. So of course, kids would go around punching each other on the arm right after their shots.
Ahhh… not commonly used or recommended in the USA. But in countries with higher disease rate, I would hope it would be readily available.
It's not given routinely in UK any more but during the 90s every 14-16 year old got it. And yep, I remember the arm punching after!
Oh yes. Huge problem. Over 2 million cases and several **hundred thousand deaths** a year. And they're not getting it under control either. It decreased temporarily during Covid, most likely due to social distancing and/or mask use, but increased year-on-year every single year since then, and is now higher than before Covid.
Oh, wow.
Yes.
Well, now, I’ve had two opposing answers. 🤔
The other person themselves admitted they have no idea. I don’t even know why people like that answer questions. It’s like those Amazon questions where a person replies to a topic not addressed to them and says “I don’t know”
It's because it's fun to answer questions. I think. I don't really know though.
About one in four people have TB across the entire world, but in the US TB is relatively rare. Most of the people with TB in the US were born in another country with much higher rates of TB. India is the third most common country that people living in the US with TB but born in another country originated from [per the CDC] (https://www.cdc.gov/tb/statistics/reports/2022/demographics.htm).
I’m a community health nurse in the U.S. and run a TB clinic. I had an Indian born patient who had latent TB (exposed at some point but not active and not able to spread it). We recommended he do the 4 months of meds to kill it and keep it from turning active and contagious. He refused because he goes back to India for a few months every year and works with the poor and was positive he would be exposed all over again. And he was probably right. Not much use getting treated if you know you’ll get it again. It’s that common there, especially among the poor.
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This comment is neither helpful nor necessary.
That sounds like exactly what someone with no appreciation for baseless stereotypes would say.
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TB is NOT incurable! We've had drugs to treat the disease very effectively for over 70 years.
Look up XDR TB which is pretty common in South Asia due to nonexistent antimicrobial stewardship.
When it's malicious, it's offensive. When it's said as a joke about a person who constantly coughs and the speaker has zero reason to know anything about a very specific regional issue? There's no need to get offended, just say "hey, many Indians would take offense because there is actually an issue with and a stigma against TB in India." Seriously, it's information I've never heard or read about and I live and work in the Seattle area, the 11th highest Indian-American population in the US. I've dated Indian-American women, have Indian-American friends and have done projects for Indian-Americans. When I worked in the tech industry contracting for Microsoft, there were tons of Indian-Americans I came into contact with. I've never once heard of TB being an issue in India. I do recognize TB in India is an issue, just pointing out that it's not exactly common knowledge.
“ a blatantly stereotyped and racist statement” Excuse me? They literally had no knowledge of the association. Yet this was “blatantly racist”?
incurable????lol
I know some guy who got tuberculosis for beating a man to death for a few bucks
I have a plan
have some goddamn faith!
Is it a good plan?
May Arthur Morgan rest in peace
May I, stand, unshaken?
Wasn’t that in Red Dead II?
yes lol
You're right, I hadn't filled my tears quota for the day 😭
My husband got to that point in the game and I was next to him, reading and not really paying attention until I realised what was happening and I started crying...not invested in the game at all but it was so sad!
I'm doing a replay after five years and let me tell you, I am taking my sweet time. In no hurry whatsoever to reach those last couple of chapters.
I bought my first gaming laptop during covid just to be able to run this game. Had been wanting to play it for years but just didn't have the hardware. Had religiously avoided literally any spoilers, I didn't even know the main character's name, and obviously hadn't played the first game. Laptop arrived the literal day before I tested positive and had to take a week off and quarantine. Binged the full 60 hours in about four days. Just couldn't stop pushing forward. I was desperate to save him and I was certain the game would let me. I was completely wrecked. Devastated. It took me far longer to recover from that game than from the Rona. One of the best pieces of storytelling I have ever experienced in any medium.
Indian justice system seems rather strange
That's the way it is
😢
As an Indian who did his masters in europe and exchange in the US, Ive never heard of this stereotype lol.
Out the Bombay doors you go!
Now he’s Goan to have a problem.
Himalaya in bed
Well they are idiots. Before I start ranting, maybe I should mention that I am an Indian as well. Sure TB is a problem in India, but so is GERD, Piles, Pancreatitis, literally any disease , Google says it is common in India. That’s mostly because of the 1 billion population. Btw , this is by no means racism . I lived in the Middle East for a decade since my parents worked there, I’ve seen and heard shit , most people won’t even believe. Ranges from Arabs saying all Indians are ugly, to arabs wanting separate canteen etc However I’ve met Arabs who are really nice, well educated and mannered . So we can’t generalise but I would say rest easy my friend. Those guys seem to be divas lol.
But have you watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate?
I saw attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion once. Tears in the rain man, tears in the rain...
RIP the great Rutger Hauer. You are missed
Someone raised the point it may have been a stereotype perpetuated by colonial/Westerners, so it may have struck a nerve with them.
Arabs think Indians are ugly? wtf… like… Have they seen Yasser Arafat and Aishwarya Rai?
Those things you mentioned aren't easily contagious like TB. The stigma attached to them can't be the way TB has. Secondly, It is common in India. Don't downplay it by saying we have 1 bn population. There are huge programs against TB by the government, advertising and campaigns for it's treatment, dedicated hospitals and TB departments etc. Also Arabs being racist towards Indians shouldn't be an excuse for anybody else's behaviour. I side with the OP here, whose remark was wrongly interpreted but your comment has a lot of inaccuracies that needs to be pointed out.
Reminds me of when i was in Paris and would always greet this african-american with "Hey boy! What's up?!" Found out later 'boy' was a derogatory term for black people. Dude just let me be casually racist while giving me the biker handshake. Maybe he knew my french-canadian idiot ass was ignorant of it.
To be fair, regardless of race, as a grown man, I wouldn't be happy with someone I'm not particularly close to calling me "boy". Its kind of condescending.
Honestly wondering about the use of African American here - did you know him to be from the US or do you just call people who live in Europe Americans?
Because he is an african-american? Texan, if that helps. An artist who's been living in Paris since the ealry 90s or 80s
One day when I was in college I showed up to my classroom and the previous class was still going. The rest of my class showed up and they still hadn't come out. The professor showed up and asked what was going on. I said, "there's a bunch of actuarial majors in there" and she got genuinely upset that I had just assumed their major. But, like, I knew roughly a third of them personally. She was generally regarded as a bit of a loon, but she was unavoidable for a couple of classes in my major.
"Did you just *assume* those people's majors?!???" /offended Wow, I've never heard of anyone being offended over this before. Assuming gender, sure. But assuming majors??
This is what I was hoping for, glad he turned out to be a Texan. He's heard worse I promise.
Yep that was what I was wondering about. Ok thanks for explaining, was confused for a minute
TIL that TB is a big issue in India.
Tell a manager stop doing that dudes work and get him fired.
Make it up to them by starting an Indian dating service. Call it connect the dots.
You're gonna end up with a lotta gingers too.
Oh, fuck. I scrolled right past this at first. You know you're going to hell, right? (So am I for laughing.)
We found the Boomer!
My wife told me this joke the other day. Then she was weirdly concerned I was offended… I thought it was hilarious!
Jesus, I did not know this. Thanks for the heads-up so others don’t learn the hard way either.
Good reminder on why keeping things professional at work is really in your best interest.
Who the hell insults a person who coughs a lot by saying he has TB? Super weird.
Whenever I cough I have to say that "I think got the black lung Pop" like Zoolander but that's a bit different
I say that all the time and my wife hates me for it cause she hates Ben stiller lol
Has she seen Walter Mitty? Great movie.
She probably won't like it, I heard she hates Ben Stiller
Don't think so, never heard of it myself.
so i'm not the only one
Tbf everytime someone in my friend circle gets some minor ailment we generally speak about them as if they got cancer and died, so I can understand OPs tuberculosis joke
Today a coworker was having a coughing fit and I said "get it together we don't your tuberculosis" which made her laugh and cough more. It's not unusual at all for my coworkers and friends to say they have the plague whenever they have a cold. The other day a coworker was sneezing and said "ahh that's the consumption acting up again"
I prefer to say Consumption like they're dying in the old times
I say the Plague whenever someone (like 1 particular coworker) is constantly sick...I guess next time I'll just have to make sure they're not from England
I have a cold at the moment and I'm currently dying of the Plague. This has been an ongoing joke for the last ten years. I should point out that it's not the Plague™ because that's meant something else for the last four years.
Consumption IS tuberculosis
thatsthejoke.jpg
As an Australian, I had never heard of consumption until the other week when I read it in an American novel. Had to look it up.
I knew because it was one of the diseases introduced to Indigenous people in Canada during colonization.
Correct
I jokingly say "covid" when anyone has a coughing fit. It's not that weird to pluck a random disease name to use as an extreme
It might seem funny in an offhand comment, but my husband has a persistent cough due to various allergies, and he is very conscious of how people look at him like he is the next Typhoid Mary. I recently had to have him drive me to some medical appointments, and he was feverishly sucking on cough drops to try and help the tickle in his throat.
You can tell him to relax, nobody is thinking he's the next Typhoid Mary. Typhoid Mary didn't show any symptoms.
Any time someone in my house gets sick i call the dog "typhoid Remi" because she has no understanding of leaving the sick person alone so she gets herself contaminated and then trys to get pets from the healthy people. As an asymptomatic carrier the dog is definitely a typhoid mary, atleast in her case she isn't infected its just probably on her fur.
Yeah, that's essentially what my "joke" was. A lot of people in the comments don't seem to get this.
The older I get, the more I’ve found that it’s just not worth it to complain about specific people. Especially at work. You think you have a grasp of the total social situation but in reality you’re always shit talking someone’s friend or the people you’re talking to think you’re being a bitch. Even if they’re engaging with you and seem like they agree. People are just afraid of conflict and will go with the motions. Then they’ll be talking about you behind your back.
Your words are wise. Don't get involved in feelings and such, keep the complaints factual if you have to.
Lmao, who the hell freaks out so hard just because somebody said something you never heard before? Super dumb! Don't be a baby.
Hey dude no one is freaking out I’ll be sure to use my lol and haha more frequently
This, you should have kept the shit talking about the colleague limited to his actual professional shortcomings, the TB comment was weird at the very least. If this guy has genuine respiratory issues, making fun of that is a low blow. For a long time, there has been a stereotype that people from poorer countries bring disease with them , so brown immigrants are especially sensitive to this stereotype.
Well, if the colleague is coughing all over the co-worker, they have a very valid complaint. I don't care why you are coughing, either stay home or wear a mask.
Agreed they have a valid complaint, disagree with the way they approached it. In general it’s bad form to shit talk, OP should have told off the cougher more directly rather than make weird jokes behind his back.
It is an actual professional shortcoming.
One winter--when my HS band director would cut us off during practice--as soon as his baton was down, wracking coughs from a school-wide illness erupted throughout the band. He goes, "Sounds like a TB ward up in here". We could only smile and nod in agreement as we tried to breathe.
We did this shit in our lab all the time. Usually I was the target and I found it funny, definitely not an insult. But then again, we are super weird...
If you are joking around friends who are coworkers and you all have the same sense of humor that’s one thing. Saying it about someone meant as an insult behind their back to coworkers you are only “friendly” with? 😬
I used to joke about every minor ailment being "AIDS cancer" like it was a single disease. exaggerating for dramatic effect, basically
Every time someone I know well is sick or getting sick, I tell them to stop sucking so much homeless dick behind the dumpster at Wendy's. I'd say the TB joke is mild in comparison.
Anyone who knows much about TB? Someone who watched a TV show recently that had TB as a plot point?
Guy could be battling lung cancer or something.
It was a sarcastic/comical exaggeration. The type me and my friends use all the time.
I'm a white Canadian, and I've had both tuberculosis and typhoid. People knew I was sick, but nobody joked about me being Typhoid Mary. And nobody suspected TB, even though looking back it was obvious.
It’s Typhoid Marry thank you very much.
Bring them all together, explain that it's just a phrase you use and you had no idea about TB in India, and apologize for the offense. If they're still weird about it, that's on them. Most people genuinely are not racist or phobic or whatever, people just say stuff and sometimes it lands wrong. People need to attribute these things to ignorance instead of malice, and then educate calmly under the assumption that the person genuinely just does not know.
Eh give it time, they will see that you didn't mean any harm in the long term. And yeah TBC is a massive issue in various part of Asia. It is even worse in central Asia.
Do not redeem!!!
Pls do the needful
My wife and I use tuberculosis as a go-to expression for sickness as well. For us, it's like an inside joke from anime characters always seeming to die from TB. I honestly had no idea it was a common sickness anywhere in the world anymore. Basically, I can definitely see us being in your situation.
Or plague
This comment thread is top notch 😂
Maybe next time you'll think before you speak and say AIDS instead of TB.
How the heck did your mind go to TB though? That's very random.
My fiancee often jokingly suggests I have tuberculosis if I have a cough. Specifically because she played Red Dead Redemption 2.
I say it a lot whenever someone has a bad cough. I am a germophobe and TB is perhaps the worst respiratory disease you can possibly have so it's a flippant/comical exaggeration of their illness which is likely a cold.
Don't look up pneumonic plague...
Ha!
> I say that flippant phrase all the time if someone's coughing a lot or seems to be sick for a long time no matter where they're from That's the real TIFU. making light of someone else's health problems. I find it incredible that you went this long without someone being offended if you commonly said this.
Sorry man, but IMO you did FU a bit, that’s not something you say in a workplace. I’m guessing you work in a white collar role and folks can be quite sensitive to this kind of remark. I would have handled this differently by talking to the team manager, and would recommend you should still do that. Come clean, say you F’ed up and ask your manager how you can make it up.
Oof that’s brutal man.
Awful thing to say about a coworker behind their back, stigma or not.
Lmao, it's silly to get all sensitive about that.
Regardless of the specific insult, it’s almost never worth shit talking a coworker to another coworker. Even if it creates a favorable situation for you, you’re setting up a hostile environment for the other. And that’s the best case scenario. More often then not, you think you know who your audience is, but in reality, they’re friends with the guy too. So now they just think you’re an asshole. This can be the case even if it seemed like they were going along with it. People don’t like confrontation.
South Africa too I think. We don’t think about it but it’s their reality
Damn, I didn't know that stigma existed either. All I knew about was the scammer, tele-technician, or "bobs vagene" stereotypes (there's others that I thought of, but I'm boozed up and my brain decided to forget them and I for the life of me cannot remember them). I'm sorry that this happened to you, and I hope they come around to realize it had nothing to do with his race. I would say just keep being your friendly self to them, don't hide from it, and sel-awareness about the incident would help; hell, maybe even a teensy weensy healthy dose of self-degradation. For example, "Fuck, guys, I'm seriously so sorry about my TB comment the other day. I honestly have never heard of the racial stigma about the Indian people and TB. Had in your shoes and had I known of the stigma, I would've just said something along the lines of, 'I'm always partnered with him, and he just sits there and watches me without contributing, and coughing his whatever-the-fuck he has of the day all over me." Lol. Just keep on trucking on into the dawn as you, and hopefully, it'll all sort itself out. I would suggest having a lil talk with all the people you work with at a convenient time, preferably where you can speak to them all at once (publicity in owning up to your honest mistake shows a lot of credibility, accountability, and helps mend relationships), to explain that you genuinely had no idea of the stigma, and also had no ill will at heart. Hope everything works out for you, muh dood!😁👍
Hunger and TB go hand in hand like in NYC during the Great Depression when 1 in 4 patients died from it.
Hey, this can be a learning opportunity, and just have an honest discussion with them.
Personally, I don’t mind a little Typhoid Marry
That's too bad, maybe you can talk to one of them at a time and explain...
When I worked with Chinatown communities I was required to get a TB shot yearly, or whatever the recommendation is.
It's a one off vaccination
I know i had all my shots, but still had to get 1 at the start to be safe. The workplace also sent out reminders every year, maybe to be safe?
Never heard of this stigma. Grew up in the UK with plenty of Indian friends. Weird.
now find something stupid to say to the other half...
I don’t say this very often at all, because it’s usually not the correct take on the situation. But your coworkers are being ridiculous and hypersensitive. They’re assuming the rest of the world is as aware of the TB issue in India as they are. I actually was aware of TB in India before, but I’ve never heard anyone actually use it as a racial slur of some sort. I’m sure someone does, but this is not an established thing you should have known about. People often use TB as a dramatic analogy for a cough. It isn’t malicious. It isn’t directed at anyone in particular. It isn’t a disease that seems real to a lot of first world people. It seems like something from a dramatic Victorian novel. Yes that’s ignorant, but it also means it comes from a place of *having no clue* about TB, TB rates in different countries, which groups are more likely to carry it, or how awful TB really can be. They can’t be malicious with it, because they don’t even know the possibility is there.
Don't you know that people (white especially) have to know every little thing about every single culture on Earth (especially the most fringe since they are like minority squared) in order to make sure that they don't say anything that can be construed as offensive?
Shit, I always make tuberculosis jokes when people cough 
Thank you for teaching me something new. I did not know this and my former boss is Indian.
India is not a race. It's a nationality. Maybe he actually has TB and they know it and nobody told you. You may want to get checked out by a doctor.
Why did you have to joke about him having TB though? It sounds like a pretty nasty comment towards a colleague. I get that you dislike him but you’ve got to be careful about the way you gossip about colleagues to other colleagues
It's pretty common to jokingly exaggerate a disease. E. G. I am out sick today and told my team that my partner traveled last weekend and brought home plague. I do not actually think she has plague, nor do I believe my team thinks that I have plague. I think OP meant it the same way.
People downvoting you are missing the point. It’s basically never worth shit talking about a coworker to other coworkers. At best you’re creating a hostile environment for the person you’re complaining about. At worst you’re creating a hostile environment for everyone. People might be laughing at your shit talk while you’re talking to them, but more often than not I’ve found that they actually just think you’re an asshole. It’s not worth it.
I feel like this may be unfair on their part if you explained everything. At least in the US, I've never once heard anything about Indians and TB, and like most people I've heard a LOT of foul stuff about Indians unfortunately. I wonder if this is one most people are even aware of comparatively.
I had an Indian friend in school and I thought we were pretty good friends. After like a year of knowing him, he tells me that he thought I didn't like him for a while because apparently every time we shook hands, I shook his hand with my left hand..
Simple solution; tell them you're sorry - you've always said the TB comment if someone is coughing/ill for a long time, regardless of who they are and where they come from, and you didn't realise it was viewed as a negative stigma/stereotype by Indian people. Tell them you genuinely meant no offence and genuinely do not think poorly of them - you were just ignorant and you're frustrated with that one guy in particular.
Imo THEY are the problem. You were criticizing one person and they got unnecessarily insecure about that. That's why I hate minorities who are pretending they are victims of all suffering. They are often nitpicking everything, if you complain about someone's behavior, they call you racist etc. Wish people were not like that. But they often are. THEY are highlighting their skin color, nationality and other thing just to start drama or just be mad at someone, when the conversation has nothing to do with these.
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That’s a textbook Boomer joke. 0 out of 10.
Lol tuberculosis is a worldwide problem. It regularly pops up everywhere, even after going away, and is extremely infectious. Every hospital and every quick care have contingency plans for an outbreak and often ask you if you've been exposed. They were ignorant of this fact and were inadvertently racist to you. The problem is that no matter how right you are, they won't care. Trying to defend yourself further may only complicate the problem. You could solicit every medical office in your city, get their info on tuberculosis, present it to them, and they would deny the reality of it. Common group-thinking that pertains to all humans.
It absolutely is everywhere. I've never even left the US and I still have to get yearly screening for TB. I'm considered low risk, but due to my line of work it's required.
Maybe it's because you're an asshole.
Big difference in being an asshole and being a racist asshole.
Just ignore them and carry on. I got accused of being racist when I used the ol' "you people" line. Apparently race is the only demographic you can discriminate against.
That's a fuckin weird and stupid thing to just regularly or at all use as a joke either way. Your use of the word "flippant" you think makes it sound better but it doesn't do that at all.