This Week in Bigotry

Since 9/11, an awareness of our surroundings was brought on to our attention by our 'faithful' leadership in DC. That awareness included looking for suspicious people, namely terrorists.

With that being said, a thought of fear and hate has permeated through American society in some circles, especially against minorities. One dressed in non-Western attire, or speaking in different tongues gets a look (Spanish excluded, as it has become a norm nowadays), one too many, and not in a good way, mind you.

An instance of this is from my cousin's recent visit to her daughter's pediatrician in New Jersey. My cousin was telling her 2 year old something in her mother tongue, where upon a man approached her and told her to speak in English with her daughter, as she will be able to speak something everyone will understand. My cousin gave an answer quite sound, telling him to mind his own business, and figure out if he had better English speaking skills than she did. Knowing that my cousin has excellent speaking skills, and went to the top English-based schools in Mumbai, India, and has worked with a couple of international airlines in the recent past, it's safe to say she has a good command over her English, and rightfully made that comment.

I don't understand it, but what is this assumption that everyone in this country should be speaking in English, with whomever and whatever at all times? English is not the national language of this country (and I sure wish it would be), so that fact alone doesn't give anyone any right to challenge who should speak what. Agreed, that the de facto language of everyday life here is English, but as a free country a person can speak in any other tongue with their family or friends.

One other thing is the hatred of the South Asian community, especially Indians, due to IT and customer relations jobs moving over to India. The resentment is strong, and the blame is being given to the wrong group. I have heard many saying that Indians are to blame for the current IT downturn in this country. So, instead of blaming the companies who move these jobs, these people blame the ones who get those jobs.

Well with that, with those who have narrow minds, they lump everyone together regardless if you are from India, or if your origins come from there. Case in point, is what happened to me this past week. This is not the first time I have faced racism, or more like foolishness, but I never imagined it would happen at a job interview.

I received a call for an interview with a company I had applied for some months back, Sanger & Eby, here in Cincinnati, Ohio. So I decided to give it a go, and see what was in store.

The hiring manager who I met, Mike, seemed to be a very nice and honest man. He asked how I had a great American accent, and if I come here as a child. Of course I told him my birth country is the good ol'USA, and have been in Cincinnati all my life, to which he seemed a bit delighted about.

As the interview went on, he asked if he could make a suggestion. Open to the advice, I gave him permission, where upon he told me, "Well I suggest you change your name.....to Andy or something.....It would make it easier for HR people and hiring managers not to skip your resume if it came through the applicants stack...". The comment confused me. What did my name have to do with me getting a job based on my skill sets and basic personality? I asked, "Why?".

The next set of comments upset me the most, "Well see....since a lot of IT jobs are being sent over to India, it's creating a bad impression on people to hire people with foreign names. You know, I had an Indian friend where I used to work at, who told me that Indians are not to be trusted". Either the guy telling him this was a sellout, or the words from Mike's mouth are his own feelings.

I ignored that slight aberration, but more and more I thought about it as the interview went on, I just got restless within. I wanted that interview to end, as soon as possible. The basics of the job description kept me interested, as I questioned Mike on the opportunity, but my gut instinct was telling me it wasn't the right opportunity.

The interview ended, and as I said the typical goodbye with a handshake with the interviewer, Mike, he addressed me by saying, "Well hope we can meet again Mr. Andy Jones!", with a slight chuckle. I gave him a dissatisfied look, and walked away.

It then hit me. I didn't want this job. It wasn't what I wanted, cause maybe I wasn't wanted. Maybe I was brought in to match some equal opportunity numbers to satisfy the government for Sanger & Eby's sake.

Ironically I was called about thirty minutes later to see if I was interested in coming in for meeting another person who Mike somehow forgot to have me meet that very day. I put it off, and told Mike I will let him know next week as I had family coming in that very night, so I had to think about it.

I realized that even if this interest was being shown, and if I got the job, my life at this company would've turned into some utter hell. The manager's idiotic opinions would've driven me out of this place very quickly, and most likely me getting into a shouting match with him.

I politely (however I didn't want to be polite) declined the revisit, and wished them good luck in their search, as one would do in a typical response in pursuit of an opportunity.

I'm sure though that the management at Sanger & Eby would've seen this through in a professional manner, but avoiding a fire when you have been initially stung by flames is much more beneficial.

These two examples of odd behavior, call it bigotry if you wish, really seem to be prevalent in our society nowadays. Me and my cousin aren't the only ones I'm sure seeing the upsurge in such incidents. Even Senator George Allen called out on an Indian-origin journalist at a recent public rally calling him a monkey. And he gets away with an apology??!?!?!?

If our leaders lead with such examples, what do you expect the general population to do?