They need to go back to India
So I was standing in line at the pharmacy last night in Houston behind a young married couple who were paying for their items. The man asked the cashier, who was probably in her late fifties, if a rebate form was in the box of one of his items or if the pharmacy had the form. The cashier grew a bit impatient and shoved a book of coupons in front of the him and told him that he’d have to look for the form himself. He perused through the booklet and replied that there were no rebate forms. The cashier then called for the store manager to come to the front for customer assistance. My turn to checkout…
I presented my one item to her, and as she scanned it she mumbled what I thought was, “I need to go home.” “You need to go home?” I asked. “No, they need to go home,” she said a little louder. I looked behind me and noticed that the couple was only a few feet away from us waiting for the manager. “Are you tired of helping them?” I asked. The cashier stopped what she was doing and looked at me intently. In a serious manner and with what I suspected was an expectation of my agreement, she declared loudly, “They need to go back to India.” The couple, I believe, heard this. They were, indeed, foreigners with mild accents who spoke fine English and were dressed in t-shirts and jeans. I asked the cashier why they would “need to go back” to anyplace. I told her that, for all we know, they had as much of a right to be here at the pharmacy as the two of us. “No,” was all she said back to me. I then told her that I married a woman from Venezuela and that I didn’t want her to go back home. The cashier gave me a look of disgust, shook her head, and helped the next customer. I left the store. The manager hadn’t come to help yet.
I’m not sure that what I witnessed was racism. I’m not sure that what I witnessed was xenophobia. I am sure that what I witnessed was intolerance.
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That’s racism all right. I’m glad you said something to her.
Repulsive. Good for you for not letting it slide.
I am glad you said something as well.
It was “all of the above”. Let’s hope you made her at least think about her attitude.
I actually feel bad for the woman. Racism is rooted in ignorance.
I was a (sort of) witness of a similar incident in a store in New York – I had an Hispanic customer who went to pick up his order there – and the clerk demeaned him for his accent and basically told him to get lost. I was pretty shocked (the customer’s wife was in tears on the phone with me.) I replaced her order at no charge (sent it directly to her home address, bypassing the store) and told her that believe me, we were going to look into this.
My company had high-level discussions with upper management of the chain store’s HQ, who looked into it with keen interest. Not sure what happened to the clerk, but I imagine it wasn’t terrible pleasant for him.
I remember my grandfather talking about when he first came to this country from Italy in 1907, and being called a WOP and a guinea by the people who already lived here.
I wish you had been there to defend him when that happened.
Poli: I would go back and speak with her boss, seriously.
Yes. Put the store manager on the spot and make that foul worker realize through authority/superiors that such verbal transgressions have no place in America, and particularly, not in the open public.
BI agree that the comment was fundamentally racist, and you were right to correct her. but at the same time I imagine there’s a case to be made for sympathy for the cashier as well. Statistically, its likely that the Indian customers are in America on a H1B visa and are skilled laborers, probably highly paid ones at that. If this is true, the fact that they have access to higher education means they come from affluent backgrounds.
The cashier, on the other hand, is probably the victim of the educational disparity rampant in America. Is in a job where she is constantly monitored, has almost no possibility for advancement and is paid far below a living wage. Again, if my earlier assumption is correct, she has to serve highly paid immigrants who are much better off than her in the land she grew up in.
I don’t think what she said is defensible, but I think there’s more going on here than just racism.
Poli: I would go back and speak with her boss, seriously.
I considered that briefly. However, I ultimately concluded that a 50 or 60 something year-old woman working as a cashier may really need her job. Had I complained and she had been reprimanded or released, would her intolerance or racism have subsided?
I got this type of stuff all my life. Still do… flying has been an event since 9/11, let me tell you.
Funny thing, I am French, German, Irish, Danish, Dutch, and Portuguese. But, since 9/11, I have been nothing but “dark”.
jn
I develop commercial banking software for the top banks in the country. They’ve pursued an offshoring model heavily for the last 7 years. My experience working with many Indians has not been good because many of them that I’ve worked with do not have the practical knowledge and experience they are supposed to, and I’ve personally witnessed the failure of several projects because of this (in fact, I have yet to see one that uses offshoring succeed). However, that doesn’t mean I want them to go home.
My point is, I have heard the exact same words spoken by the cashier in your experience used by highly educated executives (who incidentally don’t agree with the offshoring approach) all the way down to IT specialists all over the country. I don’t agree with them, but I have a feeling that their sentiments arise from a) a loss of American IT jobs to offshore resources who apparently do not have the necessary skillset to perform their tasks nor the communication skills necessary to participate in high-level meetings and b) the success-failure rate of the projects that rely heavily on offshore resources. The money may not mean alot to the top level execs, but to those managers who lead the projects, it hurts when there is a multi-million dollar failure attached to their resume all in the name of offshoring.
I’m not trying to make any excuses for these people. Like I said, I don’t agree with their sentiment as I have many really good Indian friends in the IT business who know what they are doing. I’m just trying to give you an alternate perspective.
I also agree that you did the prudent thing by not being a PC policeman and tattling on this woman who probably could not afford to lose her job for her stupid remark.
Here’s a funny (not really) predicament for the “go home” argument: My grandparent don’t speak a lick of English, but they were born in Texas as their ancestors have for two centuries. I always ask people where they should be going home to. It is really hard to answer, they usually say: “Well, then, how do they get along not speaking English in this country?” I usually point out that they are in their 90′s, quite poor, and about the happiest people you will meet arthritis and all, so they must have somehow done just fine. Is it really so unimaginable? Good for you for what you did.
Wow. Now Sam Rocha is here. Is this a Franciscan University reunion?
jn
Yes, it is rather ironic for a second generation northern transplant Texan to tell an eighth generation Texan (who happens to have a Spanish surname) to “go home.”