On Racism.

So at my job, we have to ask the customer for their zip code. It's for a survey conducted by Hub Distributing Inc. (Anchor Blue's parent company) to see where our customers are from and if we need to place another store in a different location.

Anyway, pretty much everyone has no problem giving it out. Some people will ask me what it's for and I'll tell them honestly.

Others though, have a hard time giving it out or don't give it out at all. What's unique about this though is that the only people who won't give it out (in my experience) are latino people who don't speak english very well or at all.

I don't understand why this is. It could be that they just don't understand what I'm asking for. It could be that they don't even know what a zip code is.

Or maybe they do understand me, but are afraid to give it out. Illegal immigration is a huge thing in California. The thought occured to me that these people could be living in Palmdale or Lancaster illegally and are wary of giving out their zip code because maybe they think that the INS or some other authority can track them down.

I don't know. I remember reading an article in my Senior english class about Bilingualism. Being in America, the most common language is of course, English. Yet, there are people who refuse to learn and master the language. I realize that there are many who are learning and it's hard for them... but for the ones who aren't set on learning English or don't even know a couple essential phrases to buy clothes, why are they content with that?

On a message board I frequent, a user posted an experience he had at a McDonald's restaurant. The lady he was ordering from was latina. This person asked the lady for no mustard on his burger. She couldn't understand what he was talking about. She actually had to get another worker to translate for her to understand that he was talking about Mustard.

It doesn't seem fair that that McDonald's would her in a position where she would have to interact with customers when she can't speak sufficient English, nor understand it.

I understand that a lot of immigrants are here to support their families back in their homeland (heck, that's what my parents are doing), but I think they would do so much better if they would learn the common language. They'd get a lot further in the business world, anyway.

I don't know. just thoughts.
Cy

Categories: Thoughts