Oh No! Here comes another ethnicity post!

There's been lots of talk around the blogosphere regarding race and ethnicity and whether it matters.  I've been meaning to write about a million other things, but my thoughts keep coming back to this topic. 

First, a confession.  I have an MBA and I had a great career and now I get to stay home with my kids and try my hand at writing.  I'm privileged - I know that - so this isn't a post about how life is so hard because I'm Hispanic.

I like being Hispanic.  I like it a lot.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that I don't meet my share of idiots.

So, back to the MBA.  When you're in business school there's an embarrassment of riches when it comes to career coaching and jobs and just plain old opportunity.  Companies basically wine and dine you for two years and sometimes they hire consultants to pick the "cream of the crop" for them and then they fly them out to a central location where they meet you and offer you jobs, jobs that sometimes come with salaries in the six digits.

It's not a bad deal.  Especially if you're not switching careers, which I wasn't.  I had left a brand management job in a glamorous though not well-paying field with the goal to do the same job in a less-glamorous but better paying company.

Since I already had brand-name experience on my resume and the school had awarded me a full-tuition fellowship my name was always on the invitation lists for marketing jobs.  (I think some of my classmates hated me.  I would have.)

One time, one of these hiring consultants invited 15 of us to come in for practice interviews and resume reviews.  He would pick up to five of us and fly us to Chicago to meet with his clients (Big Brand-Name Consumer Goods Companies). 

I was on the list.

The day of my interview, if you'd just let me brag a little here, I nailed it. 

"I'd like to offer you a spot on the Chicago trip.  You're smart, you know marketing and you present yourself very well.   My clients would love to meet you."

"Thanks!"  I said.  I gave myself a mental high-five.

"There's just one thing that needs to be fixed on your resume."

"OK."  I took out a pen so I could write on the copy of my resume I had put on the table between us.

"I think you should take out the last sentence in the 'Skills' section"

I reread the "Skills" section.

SKILLS

Experience analyzing AC Nielsen data.  Working knowledge of French.  Fluent in Spanish (native speaker).

"I know that 'working knowledge of French' is a bit awkward, but I don't want to misrepresent my skill level..."

"No," he interrupted, "you shouldn't say you're fluent in Spanish."

Now I was confused.  I'd never heard of such a thing - paring down my resume?  If anything, in business school we were taught to brag as loudly and as often as possible. 

"Why?"

"Because you're an excellent candidate and we don't want people to get the wrong impression."  The bastard said this while looking right at me.

What impression would that be?  That I'm Hispanic and therefore couldn't possibly be "smart" or "an excellent candidate"?

I stood up and gathered my things.  "My background is an asset.  I'm Hispanic.  If you or your clients have a problem with that..."  I was so angry I was about to explode.  "This interview is over."

I left the room and marched over to the Career Services Office, where I instantly filed a complaint.  Now that I'm older and wiser I only wish that I had sent an email to the heads of human resources at his client companies so that they could learn what a tremendo comemierda was representing them.

So yes, ethnicity matters.  As long as people ask you to deny the essence of who you are in order to be accepted, it matters.  As long as "Hispanic" is shorthand for "poor" (i.e. Hispanic neighborhood, Hispanic worker, Hispanic mother), it matters.  As long as Lou Dobbs and his friends look like they're going to throw up every time they say "Hispanic" it will continue to matter.

Comments

[Jess]

Race, like class, is invisible only to majority groups. And boy does it matter.

What a terrible experience.

[Mrs. Chicky]

I feel like applauding for you! I can't imagine how horrible that must have been but you handled it as anyone with your intelligence would - with poise, dignity and a hearty F*ck You.

[Anali]

You handled that so well. Great post. I had a work incident that happened to me many years ago where I really wish I could do it over again. I just wasn't ready to handle it at the time.

[Miguelina.]

Thanks. I have to admit that in this particular situation it was relatively easy for me to handle this the way I did. After all, as students we were constantly coached on how to show our worth in interview situations and we were on "my" home turf.

It also helped to know that Career Services was a few feet away.

If only the real world was as accommodating - most of the time I think of the right response a couple of days later and then want to kick myself.

[LawyerMama]

Great reaction! Many people wouldn't have the guts to stand up and walk out.

When I was in law school I had people tell me similar things about wearing a wedding ring. "You don't want to advertise that you might have kids and leave soon, do you?" Pissed. me. off.

[Tere]

Excellent post!

I had similar feelings when I got my college acceptance letters and they ALL marveled at how bright the little Hispanic girl was! Imagine that - I had better grades/scores/achievements than most people who had applied! ARGH.

So glad you handled it the way you did...

[Julie Pippert]

That story somehow leave me cold and boils my blood. It's the anger of it happening at all, especially under those circumstances, and the cold as ice way he just expected you to "get it" and "fall in line."

WTF?

I've only heard play up your language skills, especially Spanish because it has a high demand.

Your response rocked, and just reporting it as you did is more courage than many have.

Your last para was a punch to the gut. So well done!!

I'm glad you joined it and can't wait to read more from you.

Julie
Ravin' Picture Maven

[B@B@(Sue)]

good response!! you know what eso me paso hace mucho tiempo en Boston, y te digo que me dieron ganas de volver a mi pais...pero aqui estoy y muy bien parada..

gracias por tus palabras en este post, muy bueno...

[Heidi]

Ummm WOW?! As an HR executive and former MBA recruiter for a top Investment Bank, I am astounded that someone would say that.

Oh wait, no I'm not.

During one of my "Super Saturdays" where we flew candidates from top schools for grueling rounds of interviews, I had to literally rescue an Indian interviewee from a SENIOR EXECUTIVE who had the nerve to say "so what are you? Black?"

I won't even get into the conversation that ensued over a candidate named Ding Ding.

Rock on sister. I only wish you'd have translated your "piss off"in Spanish for the sorry sop.

[David Wescott]

wow. just the latest (and one of the strongest) examples of how people don't get it.

[halfmama]

OMG. I'm just... so astounded that I don't think I can write anything else.

Just... OMG. And I'm sorry you had to experience anything like that. Horrible.

[Teej]

Oh, god. I cannot -- simply cannot -- stomach Lou Dobbs for five seconds. And no, the fact that he is married to a Hispanic woman does not make him any less of a semi-closeted bigot, as he would have liked to make us believe in his recent 60 Minutes segment.

You handled this situation very well. I wonder how the next person will handle it. Will that hiring consultant successfully intimidate someone into covering up something they should never have to cover up? Sigh.