Sorry Y'all and Working While Black pt. 2

Sheeit, it seems like I haven't been here for awhile. Funny how real life takes it toll on the things that really mean alot to you. I spend more time working to keep a roof over my head and less time writing. Hopefully things won't be so stressful for much longer.

So many little things that have happened, no energy to stop and post them all. Every Saturday I buy the Toronto Star and this week I read an article that really pissed me off. It kinda goes back to my last post on Working while Black. This educated brother, a student at U of T, applies for a job with the Government of Ontario in the Cabinet's Office - a kickass position as a media analyst. He goes in for an interview and receives no response. He emails the assistant in the Cabinet's office and doesn't get an answer back until he receives an email that the sender meant to forward to a colleague but instead clicked 'reply.' (I've done that myself a few times but thank goodness there was nothing to be embarrassed about). On top of the original email he sent to the assistant, she had wrote, " This is the ghetto dude I spoke to before."

Yeah, so I was pissed. Not surprised that this shit goes on, but mad because this guy was judged solely on his appearance and where he resided (he lives an a low-income neighbourhood in Scarborough ON, a large enclave east of downtown GTA). The Star did an excellent job in reporting this story, laying out all angles to show that the guy was very well educated, handsome, and qualified for the position. But therein lies a bit of the problem.

Did they have to lay it out like that? Do we really need to post this guys resume to prove that the sender ( an Asian woman who should have known better - I hope they fire her ass) was not only racist but incredibly stupid to write that to another colleague? It sends a message to the reader that perhaps in other circumstances the sender might have been justified in calling him a 'ghetto dude.' I always find it funny when Canadians use the term 'ghetto,' since we don't really have them here - unless you want to call certain portions of urban areas in Winnipeg were there are a lot of poor First Nations people, but hey, I can't even use that as a good example. We just don't have the rampant, overt problems here. Even our 'bad neighbourhoods look pretty damn good in comparison to other cites worldwide.

I liked the fact that the newspaper contacted the sender, Aileen Siu and her boss before they reported on the story, as their sorry-ass, lame excuses were typical and pathetic, but it also served to solidify the relevance of the story. Sure, this has probably happened in other companies, but the Government of Ontario, who lauds it's diversity hiring and Employment Equity practises? Interesting. I think The Star meant to give the government the middle finger with this story.

It does feed into my mild paranoia about job hunting, though. What are people saying about you when you apply for a job? For people who claim that racism is over, that anyone can get the job of their dreams if they just try hard enough, this is a great example to show that some things are out of your control. If someone wants to label you there is nothing you can do about it, unless they are so stupid to do what Siu did. One other thing: I'm not saying that because she is Asian she should not be a racist, as obviously there are people from various ethnicities and cultures who are, but she could have been a tad more culturally sensitive - perhaps referred to her own experiences with being stereotyped before writing that to a colleague. Hell, maybe I'm being a bit naive, but automatically I would expect a bit more sensitivity from a person of colour. According to yesterday's Star, a lot of people wrote in about the story, which is good - people aren't as apathetic as I sometimes think they are.