Hotel owner sparks outrage by asking Hispanic workers to "change" their names...

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

...along with other questionable policies.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_trouble_in_taos

I was going to post this on CS, but quickly realized it was a fratching land mine and so put it here instead.

The guy does seem like a prick and I can't really see any reason he'd want their names changed unless guests had expressed a dislike over the hispanic help.

Part of me thinks this is little different than foreign call center workers calling themselves "Michael" or "Daniel" instead of Rahib and Tamir. I also remember from several threads on CS where posters have talked of using phony names while at work for a variety of reasons, although I don't believe any of those reasons were race related.

Another part me thinks this guy has opinions of certain racial groups that just aren't compatible with the area he's currently living and working in. It's also highly possible he's guilty of illegal discrimination based on race, but that will be for the courts to sort out if it gets that far.

Honestly, I don't really care what race the help staff is at a hotel. If they are nice and courteous, that's enough for me.

[BroomJockey]

You know, I'm on the fence on this, because I wonder if it was a "everyone needs Anglicized names" thing, and he just happens to only have Hispanics, and thus it's not actually racist (yeah yeah, fine, not AS racist ), or if it really is a "Hispanics change your names" thing.

Further, not speaking a different language in front of the boss? That's just smart. It's already rude to do that in front of others (say, I and my best friend start speaking French, and the poor sod who's along for the ride with us only knows English), but to do it in front of your boss, making him paranoid? Dumb. Absolutely dumb.

I dunno, I'd need more of a pattern before saying one way or the other.

[Fryk]

Did you guys notice who picketed him? One of the groups calls themselves Los Brown Berets de Nuevo Mexico. Uh, hello, irony. YOU GUYS ANGLICIZED THE NAME OF YOUR PROTEST GROUP!! (The word for brown is marrón, and the word for beret is boina, but I don't know how to make it grammatically correct).

Also, I wonder if the dipshit manager tried to make any of them change their name to Toby?

[DesignFox]

I think it was over the top for him to ask his employees to Anglicize their names. But asking them to only speak English in his presence? No big deal. I mean, that's just common courtesy.

[DrFaroohk]

I'd think he can do whatever he wants to - its his business, his private property. I don't see a difference between a boss saying you can't speak spanish at work and a school saying you can't wear women's clothes.

I suppose the name thing is kind of dumb, but I don't see a real problem with it. And there are some really hard to pronounce some names, and it might make the guests more comfortable to address "Michael" rather than "Xchgarsefsdcvlkn".

[linguist]

I But asking them to only speak English in his presence? No big deal. I mean, that's just common courtesy.

why? if holding a private conversation with a friend that has nothing to do with you, why should i feel forced to use a language i may not be entirely comfortable speaking just because you happen to be present?

[BroomJockey]

why? if holding a private conversation with a friend that has nothing to do with you, why should i feel forced to use a language i may not be entirely comfortable speaking just because you happen to be present?

Because it's a place of business, and your comfort is secondary to the smooth running of the business, and if the boss says that it's a monolingual workplace in his presence, it's monolingual. Not like the US has an official language for them to point to to be allowed to speak it.

[DesignFox]

why? if holding a private conversation with a friend that has nothing to do with you, why should i feel forced to use a language i may not be entirely comfortable speaking just because you happen to be present?

A) What broomjockey said.

B) If I were friends with you and a group of people that spoke a different language in addition to English, I would think you'd all be courteous enough to include me in conversation by speaking English.

Common courtesy. We aren't talking about two strangers walking down the street speaking to one another. If that were the case, it shouldn't matter what language they are speaking, because other people shouldn't be listening in anyway.

I guess courtesy isn't as common as I continue to delude myself it is.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

A big part of the problem here is that he came to Taos because he 'liked the scenery' or whatever, but not having any understanding of what the culture and history was like there. Northern New Mexico is very unique culturally; it is well over 50% Hispano, and they are not immigrants. They are descended from Spanish colonists who settled there hundreds of years ago and most of them still speak Spanish as a first language. It's actually quite difficult to get along in rural Northern New Mexico unless you speak at least a little Spanish because that is the majority language there. It is spoken everywhere, in the grocery stores, in the movie theatre, at official government functions...

The other main groups in Taos specifically are the Pueblo Indians, and the white people---many of whom live a hippie type of lifestyle. Dreadlocks and pot smoking are so common in Taos they don't even raise an eyebrow. The Hispanos are the majority, but they have a long history of being persecuted by white Americans---in the 18 and early 1900's, they would often have property seized by the local government for no reason other than someone wanted it and suffered many other abuses, a lot of which had to do with trying to force them to anglicize. And that's not even getting into the persecutions suffered by the Indian tribes.

Now the groups all live together pretty well, but there are certain lines you don't cross, and people who live within the culture know that. Outsiders are often clueless as to the long and contentious history that allows them all to live together peacefully. Asking the Hispanos to anglicize their names harks back to the abuses they used to suffer and is like a slap in the face to them. They are very proud of their culture and heritage, which is unique even among Latino cultures, and they have managed to keep it intact for hundreds of years.

I think the problem is that this manager just has no idea of the minefield he stepped into, and he seems to have a rather abrasive style, which makes things even worse. His attitude basically says he doesn't really care what the history or culture of the place is, he is going to do whatever he wants to and since it worked in Texas, which has a completely different culture, then it damn well better work here too. I mean, referring to the white population as 'potheads who escaped society' is definitely not going to help him win any allies.

[Giggle Goose]

why? if holding a private conversation with a friend that has nothing to do with you, why should i feel forced to use a language i may not be entirely comfortable speaking just because you happen to be present?

I'm with Broom and DF. In a place of business, you shouldn't be having personal conversations anyway (unless it's an emergency, of course).

I used to go to a nail salon in which the employees were Vietnamese. The owner (who was also Vietnamese) didn't allow his employees to speak it when customers were around. He told me "I don't want anyone to think we're making fun or their hands and feet."

No one seemed to have a problem with it, and as a result I think they built better relationships with clients and got a lot more business than other places in town where employees spoke their native language. It was a much more comfortable environment.

But IMO it's just plain prejudiced to make employees go by a different name. I wouldn't give that guy my business if I was staying in the area.

[Nyoibo]

why? if holding a private conversation with a friend that has nothing to do with you, why should i feel forced to use a language i may not be entirely comfortable speaking just because you happen to be present?

If you're having a private conversation then you do it in private, not in front of someone else.

[Arcade Man D]

I suppose the name thing is kind of dumb, but I don't see a real problem with it. And there are some really hard to pronounce some names, and it might make the guests more comfortable to address "Michael" rather than "Xchgarsefsdcvlkn".

Yeah, but Miguel, Martín, Pilar, José, and María aren't hard names to pronounce. I could see it with asking Guillermo to go by William, or Bill (or heck, even Gill), because that's actually going to be a hard one to pronounce, but Hispanic names are generally easy to pronounce for Americans.