Joy wanted William to defend her and fire Mike’s ass on the spot, but she knew she was out of line and Mike had every right to warn her of the consequences of her belligerence. But she also knew what was happening to Cory was wrong too.
She decided to ignore Mike and look to William again. “Harassment isn’t what this is about anyway,” she said to him.
William looked at her. He knew she would explain.
“Cory is the model student in that training program. He’s on pace to finish at the top of the class and nobody else is even close. But he’s got a problem.”
“I’ll say,” said Mike. “He sexually harasses people.”
“Shut up, Mike,” William said. “Go on,” he said to Joy.
“His problem,” Joy said, glancing at Mike, “is that he’s a black man finishing at the top of an all-white class and the director of that program can’t deal with that. That’s what this is about!”
Both Joy and Cory stared at Mike. But Mike was chuckling and shaking his head. “That’s what they do. They play the race card. It never fails.”
But William wasn’t so dismissive. “Is Cory at the head of the class?” he asked Mike.
Mike seemed less sure of himself. “He is, yes sir.”
“And all this talk of me harassing another trainee didn’t start until the rankings came out today.” Cory knew he had to speak up for himself. “It wasn’t an hour after he saw my name at the top did he call me into his office and start claiming I was harassing somebody I’ve never said two words to in the whole time I’ve been in training, let alone harassing him.”
“Wow,” said Joy. She didn’t even know it went that deep. She and Cory looked at William.
When he said nothing and seemed buried in his own thoughts, Joy pounced. “How could you just sit there? You heard what he said.”
“And he heard what I said,” William said and then looked at Cory. “Tell her what I said, Cory.”
“You said I was on leave, but that what Mike said goes.”
William stared at him. That was why he didn’t fuck with twentysomethings. They were too self-absorbed to even pay attention. Joy was a definite exception. “What else did I say, Cory?”
Cory tried to remember. Then he shook his head. “I don’t remember anything else. When you said what Mike said goes was all I needed to hear.”
“I told you that you were on leave pending an investigation. If the investigation bears out what Mike said then yes what Mike says goes. But if you didn’t do anything wrong you have nothing to worry about. And Mike has plenty to worry about.”
“That’s better than an outright firing,” said Joy, “and Cory was wrong for jumping to conclusions so fast like that. But you’ll be playing right into Mike’s hands with this investigation. Why should Cory have to miss class and lose his ranking while this investigation goes on?”
“He will not lose his ranking. And the investigation is already ongoing. I should know something by close of business today. That’s why I told him to take the rest of the day off. Now get out of my office I have work to do!”
Joy was disappointed. She wanted so much more out of William when it came to matters like this. And although he did keep his word and hire an African-American over his Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program, she was still puttingher staff together. And William didn’t believe in micromanaging anything. She and Cory began leaving.
“Stay back, Cory,” William said. “Get back to work, Mike.”
Cory and Joy glanced at each other, and Joy squeezed Cory’s arm as if to tell him to defend himself vigorously, as she left the office. Mike didn’t like it, and he gave Cory a look to prove it, as he left the office too.
“Sit down,” William said to Cory.
Cory sat down.
“Have Mike or any of the instructors shown any signs of racial animus toward you while you have been in JEP?”
“Overtly no. But there’s a lot of subtle macroaggressions yes.”
“Such as?”
“I’ll answer a question and they’ll claim it’s wrong, and then a white student will answer that question the exact same way and that student is lauded. It’s the right answer then. Stuff like that.”
“But despite that you still made it to the top of the class.”
