Sometimes prejudice is subtle

[Xipe Totec]

I share an office with a coworker, ethnically European, with an English last name. A really nice guy.

Although I'm a Mexican as a paddle cactus and have a Spanish last name, ethnically I'm also European, so I don't "look" Mexican.

I get a paper payroll statement but my coworker chose to have an electronic statement instead; no paper.

Today was payday and we have a new office assistant who does not know either of us personally. She has one pay-stub to deliver.

My coworker was out of the office today so I'm here alone.

She comes to the office with the one pay-stub (with my Spanish last name on it). She looks inside, says hi and smiles, and without asking any questions drops the stub on my coworker's desk and leaves...

:eyes:

[DavidDvorkin]

1. I'm not sure that's prejudice

It's an unwarranted assumption, but does that equal prejudice? In the strict sense of definition, prejudging, sure. But as normally used, the word prejudice has negative connotations that don't seem to apply in this case.

[Xipe Totec]

3. It is prejudice in both senses

The negative connotation is applying the unstated stereotype that all Hispanics are dark skinned.

As I said, it is subtle.

[Cleita]

4. It is bigotry. She assumed because he didn't look like a stereotypical

Latino, that he wasn't. The fact is that many of us don't look like we are supposed to.

[Solly Mack]

7. It's prejudice. Her assumption is rooted in the thinking that people with Latino names will look a

certain way....a stereotype. She saw the name and just knew the white hue person sitting there couldn't possibly be the person she was looking for...she had a name...so her assumption was based on a stereotype she harbors(what people with that name look like)...and that makes it a prejudice.

[Cleita]

2. I know what you mean.

I don't look like the stereotypical Latina either and because of my American father, of northern European ancestry, didn't have a Spanish surname. My married name is Irish because of my Irish husband. I have spent a life time listening to racist remarks from co-workers and other acquaintances because of this. I always loved it when sometimes a Mexican national who didn't speak much English came in to do business or look for a job and I was able to speak Spanish to them. The dropped jaws I have left in my wake over the years makes me smile.

[Xipe Totec]

6. That's exactly what I'm talking about

I also get to hear a lot of unflattering conversations about Hispanics simply because people don't realize that I'm one of "THEM".

It can also be very funny sometimes, like the time I was behind a Mennonite couple crossing the border at El Paso. Both blond and blue eyed, he wearing coveralls and flannel, she wearing gingham and a bonnet, both jabbering away in German. When they got to the front of the line the immigration officer asked them for their identification in English. The man gave his wife a puzzled look and said:

¿Que dijo?

Only then did the red-faced immigration officer repeat the question in Spanish.

[LibDemAlways]

5. People make a lot of assumptions based on last names. My married

name is a very unusual spelling of an Irish name. The way it is spelled it ends in "a." Years ago when I earned a teaching certificate the job market was very tough for teachers. It was difficult to even get a job as a substitute. One day out of the blue I got a call from the head of the college job placement office telling me there was an opening for a Spanish teacher locally. She went on and on for several minutes about what an ideal candidate I was, before I finally stopped her and asked her why she had singled me out - especially because I was an English major. "Because you are Latino," was her reply. I asked what made her think that, and she said "Your last name, of course." When I told her it was actually an Irish name, belonged to my husband, and that I was ethnically Polish, she hung up quickly.

Assuming not only that I was Latino but fluent enough in Spanish to teach the subject was just stupid.

No one should ever make an assumption based on a name. It truly shows lack of thought.