I work in a nursing home where the staff is majority African American. I am white. My unit manager is also white. The other day, she was talking to another nurse and said “Not my circus, not my monkeys”. One of the black nurses was very offended by it and she told the unit manager. My unit manager attempted to apologize but the nurse wasn’t having it. The unit manager went to the Director of Nursing to let them know that she had said something and it was taken the wrong way and she offended someone. There ended up being an investigation by the union and the unit manager was told to stay home the next day. She’s a young, new nurse and now has the entire building talking about her in a negative light. I guess what I’m wondering is, was is racist?

It’s just a saying and it actually means not my business but do you think it could be racist?