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The Road to Hell Case

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Case 1: Road to Hell
Description
The “Road to Hell” case is about two professional engineers that came from different backgrounds, have different personalities, but with similar educational background as far as their work goes. Based on the description of the two professionals, John Baker comes across as a white man from either Europe or the Americas and Matthew Rennalls is a minority, presumably black, from a developing country.
Diagnosis
The problem is that there are apparent cultural differences between the two professionals. This cultural difference can be perceived as racism based on the way these two professionals interact with each other. Europeans and Americans tend to have a lot of pride and can make themselves seem superior to others. This superiority that is portrayed can be looked at as racial.
First, John Baker initial approach when he called Matthew Rennalls into his office for a meeting was not welcoming. After offering Matt a cigarette, which is a tactic to bring down his guard, he started off by saying he’s older and more experienced which came across as if he’s looking down on Matthew. Secondly, his choice of words, like when he compared the longevity of his ancestors in the industry to that of Matthew Rennalls’s was very insulting. Again, he came across like he was better and more superior to Matthew because his ancestors have been in the industry for some 200 to 300 years compared to 50 to 60 years that Matthew’s ancestors have been in the industry. Even though there is some truth to that, I feel like there were other ways he could have presented this fact without coming across like he’s looking down on Matthew and his culture. John Baker might have had good intentions when he called Matthew into his office for a final meeting, but his presentation came across as racist, being cocky, superior, and downright insulting to the

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