Gran Torino, a Workplace

We know that Gran Torino is a movie. But what if it were a workplace? One employee like Clint Eastwood’s Walt Kowalski would be all an employer needs to get sued for just about everything.

Kowalski is retired and bitter about changes in America. Almost the only thing that provides stability is his prized, mint-condition 1972 Gran Torino.

Having spent his career as a Ford autoworker in Detroit, Kowalski sees his neighborhood being invaded by immigrants. Next door, a Hmong family from Laos represents diversity he finds abhorrent.

He growls epithets for every racial and ethnic group. He calls his neighbors ”gooks” and ”slopes,” like those he fought in Korea. Interestingly, when he confronts three young African-American males harassing the next-door Hmong daughter, you think you know what he’s going to call them — but he doesn’t. He calls them “spooks,” not the more realistic N-word. Apparently all epithets are fair game but that one — even in a movie.

Eventually, Kowalski bonds with his Asian neighbors. He realizes he has much in common with them. He becomes the protector of the Hmong daughter and son and finally their savior.

Kowalski’s epithets aren’t reserved for Asians and blacks. His Italian barber receives a dose of Italian epithets, and the barber responds with Polish insults. Kowalski attempts to teach the Hmong son how to engage in the humorous slurring of another’s heritage and withstanding the humorous slur hurled back.

I wondered if it might be possible for Gran Torino to become a workplace where employees learn to respect different racial and ethnic groups as Kawalski learned to respect his Asian neighbors and still call each other names in a good-natured way. Would the post-race America of which President-elect Obama is a symbol be strong enough to handle that?