Ha! This story was fantastic. Lipsyte is hilarious and poignant in his critique of office/middle class culture. This story is most likely going to polarize people; some will find it hilarious while others might be offended.

But for any of those that might get offended: Lipsyte is not tapping into "white-anger" or "male rage" or something like that. He's critiquing the morales of middle-class, capitalist America.

Look at his apology at the end:

Why not judge me by my better acts? Who remembered that Farooq was allergic to coconut when we ordered his birthday cake? Who covered for Rona when she won tickets to the circus and wanted to take her kids during a working Saturday? Who spent weeks training his newest colleague, showing the proverbial ropes to a person hired by design to be his immediate superior upon completion of said training? Couldn’t one even argue that my supposedly hurtful comment, allegedly rendered even more destructive by our power differential, was in fact merely a teasing acknowledgment that this very differential was about to be reversed?

For those of us who have similar lives: what good can be said of our morales? Have we really performed any good deeds at all? We may judge those, on social media or in the real-word, for the terrible things they say, but do we really have the moral authority just because we haven't done something as bad?

Lipstye is not writing a justification for the white, middle-class male whose priviledge makes it seem he can do whatever he wants. He's saying yes, this guys is a total dirt bag (he obviously is), but are you really any better? What have you done that brings you above this, other than rant on the internet or to your friends or family about the moral values that should be upheld?

Maybe I'm interpreting this story wrong, but that's what I tooke out of it. I felt that wow, all my moralizing where I believe I'm good and such will be completely overshadowed by a bad act, because I simply have not shown myself to be a good person. I'm one of the middle-class capitalists who proclaim to be "woke" but do not have the actions to back that up. It's a little depressing, but Lipstye has done really well to point this out in a hilarious form and made me realize I might need to get my act together going forwards.