agonyaunt | (no subject)

Q. Sounds racist: I’ve been hearing the phrase “Not my circus, not my monkeys” more frequently in a professional setting in the last few years (I’m in HR). I’ve avoided using it because I had believed it had racist origins, though when I looked it up, I found it’s based on a Polish proverb. However, I still feel uncomfortable using it.

What’s another way of saying that this situation is not my concern (other than “this situation is not my concern”)? I’d like to find something catchy that maybe my team will pick up on and start using instead.

A: How many professional dumpster fires is your team observing and then excusing themselves from? For this to warrant a new phrase, I have to assume that while your circus may be running smoothly, the circus down the hall is a real disaster. So, I guess, good luck to everyone at your office, their respective circus acts, and whatever primates are in their org chart.

The process of making a new catchphrase that is both legible outside of the context in which it was invented and also appealing to others is a tricky one. This talent is what keeps both Madison Avenue ad execs and viral TikTokkers rolling in the dough. I’m neither of those things, so I don’t have a suggestion for a catchphrase for you. Try just saying “that’s not my concern” and keeping it moving. And see if you can find out whose circus it is—somewhere in your company a ringleader has really fallen down on the job.

https://slate.com/human-interest/2022/04/sister-raunchy-gag-gifts-dear-prudence-advice.html

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Weird thing to spend mental bandwith on. If you're opposed to the expression (I'm guessing it's the proverbial monkeys) and not willing to just swap out that word with another circus word (clowns? lions? jugglers? annoying audience members?) then you're better off saying it directly, as advised.

Gonna post the first letter in this column as well, because it's a doozy of wtf-ery.

Maybe LW was traumatized by "grandfather clause", which does have a racist origin.

And ever since I've found that out I've felt weird saying it, although, unlike in *this* case, I can't think of an easy way to say the concept that doesn't involve those two words.

this is a struggle at work.

we have switched to referring to “legacy environment” and people mostly know what that means but it doesn’t convey to people the “special exceptions that we keep for now because of pre-existing situations and agreements but that we no longer offer unless you can present a business justification and a cost justification that indicates that you are prepared to pay for this no-longer-offered non-standard offering, which we used to convey fairly simply as ‘grandfathered in’.

where legacy environment doesnt convey that extra detail we just all the words.

Clowns sounds better, even though some clown costume tropes are explicitly racist (the large wig in particular)

"That sounds like a you problem"

How many professional dumpster fires is your team observing and then excusing themselves from?

Perfect response, haha. I wish I could excuse myself from the dumpster fires in my company.

I generally feel that when people make hay out of things they assume are bigoted, even after learning the word or phrase has neither a bigoted origin nor a history (the word "jimmies" comes to mind), do no good and have the potential to cause harm.

I sympathize with the LW's intent, but I'd imagine that if she imagines saying to her team "although 'not my circus, not my monkey' has no racist origins, I'm asking you to switch to 'not my problem' because every time someone mentions monkeys I assume they are being racist about Black people" she might realize why her entire attempt to be anti-racist is ending up having racist effect.

^^^ This. It feels overly (way overly) try-hard in a way that accomplishes no actual anti-racism while at the same time centering racism.

Yeah, it feels like the kinds of mental gymnastics I did as a younger person starting to figure out anti-racism. Better to use the inside voice to work out whatever's going on in one's head. Alone.

This is just what I was thinking.

Well analyized.