Things Not To Do In An Interview...

I am pretty sure it was never officially covered in my college or graduate classes, but as a general rule of thumb when interviewing for a job I have learned one valuable nugget of wisdom:  DO NOT PERFORM OFFENSIVE RACIAL SLURRED IMITATIONS IN AN INTERVIEW.  Now, please understand, this is not something that I thought I should have to offer as advice for anyone, but looks like some people may not have gotten the memo.  Por Favor, don't get me wrong.  I enjoy a good Mexican joke as much as the next guy. But for some reason it seems ok, when I (as an identified Mexican-American) make the joke to other Mexicans or to my white buddies who pretend that since they are friends with me that they have a right to laugh.  But doesn't it make sense, that if you were a white male, applying for a job at a school of a diverse multicultural demographic that you would refrain from imitating your current Hmong supervisor to a team of interviewers?  Seems like common sense right?  Well, sadly this one particular applicant this week, lets call him Bland Whiteman to keep him anonymous, was absent the day God's great gift of tactfulness was being handed out. I haven't seen such a terrible impersonation since Fischer Steven's role in Short Circuit.

Due to discretionary reasons, I can't go into any further detail, but just know that what he did was a giant no-no.  Not only did he break into a terrible Asian accent when imitating his supervisor he spoke in broken English, I am pretty sure he was two-seconds away from breaking into the ol' childhood game "Me-Chinese-me-play-joke" and pulling on his eyes to "make himself look Asian."

So, tell me, in which way can we blame Mr. Whiteman?  I am convinced that 20 years ago, maybe less, perhaps this behavior would have been acceptable.  In fact, I am willing to bet that in some areas of either MN or in my home state of MT, this type of behavior is still  widely acceptable.  Heck,  given the experiences my Mexican father has endured as of late at his rural Montana job, it may damn well be encouraged! Obviously in some of Bland's social circles this is no big deal now.  It worked out that he wasn't a very good interviewer other than the racism either.  And his lesson sucked.  The students hated him.  Maybe that makes it easier to tell him, "No go, on the job-o."  But, when push comes to shove, what if he was a great teacher?  I wonder if a supervisor would be willing to over-look blatant racism and hire him.  Or to be more profound, how many of us would over-look subtle racism from a candidate if they were a strong candidate?  Evidently most of us given the amount of racist comments I have encountered in my professional career.
Again, maybe its because I seem safe to my Caucasian brethren, but I have heard plenty of racist remarks, often from my closest colleagues in the past. Comments directed both at me and about others.  So really, are they any better than Bland?  I guess so, because they are able to filter.  They waited to be racist until AFTER they go hired.  Racist comments given to the token Mexican.  Maybe they thought  its ok because I make comments myself.  Its easy to let ourselves off the hook because we say we are just "joking," right?  Well Mr. Whitman was only "joking" too right?  Not sure.  Most of my colleagues, many of whom I would call friends would probably be devastated if they knew something they they said as a joke actually cut deeper than they intended.  So I guess that makes them better.  The potential for remorse.  Either way, after this encounter with Mr. Whiteman, I will be more careful about making jokes about my people, as well as my Asian, Black and African brothers and sisters  in the professional setting.  God knows I don't want to come off as a racist...