I’m over 50, graying, balding, and have a bit of a paunch.
The reason I have to work 2 jobs to replace the income I made at one job that I was downsized from in 1999 is that jobs that pay decent wages come are gate-kept by HR managers who think I’m either too old to do the job , that my weight is a sure sign of laziness, or both.
Despite the fact that I give up every other weekend to my part-time city delivery job, I’m lazy because I’m a little overweight. The twit who sucks up by playing handball or golf with the boss so he can cut out of work early Fridays is “ambitious” because he “looks fit”.
In 1992 I graduated from college with a degree in electrical engineering, and I was scheduled to interview for a job at a large computer company. (The company name is an acronym comprised of three letters, and is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio. No, not IBM…) Everything was going great, when suddenly I got a letter saying that the interview was cancelled! I grew up in Dayton, so I knew a handful of people who worked at this company. I asked them to give me the inside scoop on why my scheduled interview was suddenly cancelled. They said that there had recently been a very strong push to hire women and blacks, and H.R. was scrutinizing every applicant for gender and ethnicity. While I have no proof my interview was suddenly canceled due to my gender and ethnicity (I’m an evil white male), I can only assume this was the case.
The only real discrimination I’ve encountered has come from my grandfather. He is convinced that women don’t have the minds to comprehend money issues. He’s opened up trust funds for me, with my mother as trustee, and manages stocks for both of us, but he refuses to explain any of it to us. Apparently because we don’t have penises, there’s no way we could understand. :rolleyes: He’s more than willing to explain anything to my father, though.
Aside from occasionally being referred to as a non-person (“How many in your party - three and a wheelchair?”), and the usual not being able to patronize some establishments, the most common form of discrimination I run into is when I try to catch a cab in the city.
Cabs will not stop for me. They’ll either speed right by, or if a group of able-bodied people are just down the street, they’ll stop for that group. I have to practice deception - get an able-bodied person to hail it, then get in.
One time, this tactic failed to work:
My able-bodied friend hailed the cab, but the driver started spewing B.S. as soon as he saw that I was the person who’d be using the cab. Told me that the street that I wanted to go to was blocked off by construction, even though I’d been there not three hours before. And the fact that it was right in front of Penn Station.
About ten minutes of back-and-forthing ensued, then I just let him go. The funny thing is, if he’d just said something like, “Look, I don’t think my back could handle lifting the chair”, I’d have been fine with it.
I worked at a pizza place my senior year of high school. After I asked to reschedule one of my working days for Rosh Hashana, the manager’s attitude towards me changed. My hours were cut by more than half and he would make snide comments like “be careful, the pepperoni’s not kosher.”
The manager, who was in his 40’s, was soon fired for being too friendly with the female teenager customers. The irony is that the owner of the pizza place was Jewish and his wife was an admin of some kind for the Jewish Federation of L.A. This guy’s entire family income came from Jews.
When I was 17 and lived in Nashville, I applied for a job at one of the local historical houses. It was one of those deals where all the employees dressed in period costumes. They turned me down because I looked to “Asian”. After telling the bitch in charge, that I didn’t even have Asian ancestors, she suggested that perhaps it wasn’t something my family talked about. :mad: After I mentioned race discrimination, she became outraged and said “We hire black girls all the time”. Yeah, but you make them dress like Aunt Jemima. :rolleyes:
Let me start my story by saying that I am not (currently) Jewish. However, I have a last name that is obviously German to anyone who cares to look at it, and if you know a little about German Jew geneology, it would be reasonable to infer that I actually am Jewish (I actually have suspicions, based on stories from my relatives and some other things, that my family was Jewish and converted to Lutheranism out of fear for their safety).
Also, I have a star of David necklace that I bought in a vintage store. It has a little symbol in each section of the star, a tree, a flower, an animal, a jug, a man. I found out later that it is a symbol used by people who study Kabballah, but I didn’t know that then, I just liked it as a mystical symbol and I liked the way wearing it made me feel.
When I was looking for a job here in Montreal, I applied to a restaurant that had a huge sign in the window asking for servers. I passed the first test with flying colours when the Hostess looked my resume over, smiled widely, asked me a few questions about my availability (always a good sign), and then directed me to the owner, who was sitting nearby. She even introduced me to him personally, so I was thinking “slam-dunk!”. He took one look at me. Then he read my name. Then he looked at me again. He said in Algerian French; “There are no positions available at this time.” And went back to reading the stuff on the table in front of him.
I didn’t know what hit me. After I talked to my mom about it, she told me to look at it through his eyes to understand.
Me: Olive complexion, curly dark hair, star of David, German name.
Him: Algerian. “There are no positions at this time.” Despite the gigantic red and white sign in the fricking window, and the obvious interest of his head waitress.
Yeah, anti-Semitism isn’t dead, sadly. Not that I would know from personal experience, but I’ve heard some unpleasant remarks from acquaintances, and even on occasion relatives, to know.
Growing up in a small Nevada town, I got “Christ-killer” a lot. But hey, if everyone says it, it must be true, right?
I was more lucky than my brothers, though, because being a girl helped prevent me from getting beat up by dumb hicks. (no offense…)
My brothers, not willing to let the phrase “(Dirty) Jewboy” pass, got into many a fist-fight. Never got suspended for too long, though, 'cause the principal was nice enough to see their reasons for getting upset.
My brother got the Jew boy stuff a lot, and might have gotten beat up if he hadn’t been the baddest dude in the school.
I, on the other hand, being an adopted Asian kid, was spared the anti-Semetic crap. The guys had so many other reasons to torment me–Asian, nerd, effeminate, that they never got around to my religion.
I’ve seen a lot more discrimination than I have suffered. I’ve done okay and keep my beefs in context. I’m agnostic, but look Jewish. My father’s half of the family is Jewish.
When I was fifteen, our house was vandalized. Someone painted “skate fuck” and a carcicature of a Jewish nose on the door. I heard rumours it was a Palestinian kid at school. If it was, obviously he was unaware of my political and religious views regarding that conflict.
I work hard. I was fired from a job when I was nineteen because my supervisor, an unmitigated moron of German background, felt I “couldn’t speak good English”. I do talk with an accent, which is unusual and hard for people to place (I can’t place it myself).
I have vacationed in Berlin twice. And I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the openness of the young Germans. I see this as a generational thing. I think it took enormous courage for younger Germans to challenge the “can’t discuss this” mentality that existed after WW2. Most Germans I met went out of their way to be inclusive and pleasant. I understand some 20% of Germans admit to resenting Jews (I only look the part), some making the argument “we have paid enough”, which I sympathize with (though disagree – some things should be forgiven and not forgotten, not vice versa). However, I did get pushed around in night clubs on a few occasions by a minority of obnoxious folks who did not initially realize that I am much physically stronger than I look, having power lifted for years on a moderate calorie dirt.
One can’t let a few isolated moments hold one back.