[ScizzMoney]

When I was still working drilling rigs new guys got razzed hard for the first couple of weeks. Whether that guy was Asian, Native, Black, White, it didn't matter. We (Yes I partook) would ride new guys as hard as we could to try and get them to quit. If they didn't quit, we knew they weren't flakes and would treat them well after that (provided they had a good work ethic). I would never bring race into it myself as I am Scottish, Irish, Native, Japanese. I actually had to fight a couple of times because I look more Native than anything else and a white guy that was on this crew didn't particularly like that. But, I would give new guys shitty jobs to do. One of the best workers we had when I was on Ensign 6 was an Ethiopian who barely spoke english. I'm surprised he didn't kill our Driller or Motorhand at the time with all the racial slurs that would go at him. When he came back for his second hitch, we treated him like one of the family and the guy could outwork all of us, he just couldn't understand what we were saying most of the time so he was stuck as a Leasehand.

I am by no means saying treating people like shit is right. We found that if you treat people the way you would treat them in the real world they never work out and are always looking to take breaks and use the buddy system when not needed etc. I've seen a few handfuls of grown men cry due to getting teased and demeaned on the job.

Keep in mind also that not all rigs are like that. It does seem that these types of practices are less common than before but it still happens.