this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
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[–] Potatos_are_not_friends 105 points 7 months ago (4 children)

First question in the interview I had a few years ago: "Do you have a green card?"

I was born here asshole. I'm brown skinned.

[–] DillyDaily 53 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Exactly, and for any white people in the comments about to say "well they have to ask everyone to know you can legally work,I get asked about my citizenship status too in the job interviews, it's just a box HR has to tick"

Yes, it is just a box HR has to tick, which is why they will usually ask after a few other questions, and in my pasty pale experience, they ask me "and just confirming you're legally eligible to work in [country], are you a citizen... Or a PR" and the trail off, they don't ask about working visas or our equivalent of green cards, they assume I'm going to say "yes, citizen" and move on.

Meanwhile my partner, who is also white, but from his accent he is clearly not "from here" will also get similar treatment, they wait until a few questions into the interview, they ask about his legal work eligibility, they will mention working visas in the question, but it's still coming from a place of genuine information gathering.

My brown cousins on the other hand? "do you have a work visa?" is one of the first questions they get asked. Not even "do you have the legal right to work here? Like a Work visa or citizenship", just straight up "do you have a work visa?" because the assumption is that they are not a citizen or PR because of their skin colour.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Lol I've seen this first hand so many times. "When did you come to Canada? Is this your first winter? Have you seen snow before? Was it hard learning English?" Like, do you think Canada just recently opened its borders and everyone who isn't white must be new?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What I hate is that some folks I know who aren't white have come to expect this kind of thing. Knew a great guy at work of Indian descent, got to meet him in person for the first time and I asked him where he was from. Normal question when you personally are an army brat and pinged around the country in your formative years.The response was "Well my grandparents are from India".

I have never cringed so hard, and was quick to say "Shit, no, I meant did you grow up in Toronto, or did you used to live in some other place in Canada before?". Made me think about how many people did that "No, where are you really from" shit with him before.

[–] quaddo 3 points 7 months ago

Back in the 80s one of my first jobs out of university was working downtown Toronto. One of my coworkers was this effervescent woman of Japanese-Canadian descent.

She would talk about what it was like meeting guys in clubs.

“So, where are you from?”

“Scarborough”

“Uh… no, I mean where are you originally from?”

(feigning an “oh I getcha now” moment) “Ohh okay, yeah… Saskatchewan”, since that’s where she really was from, previously.

[–] almar_quigley 26 points 7 months ago

I’m not brown but I was once mistaken for Mexican immigrant. The way the person treated me in that instance was really eye opening to me for how folks can get treated that I never otherwise would’ve have experienced.