We’ve probably all experienced a new boss who charges in with new rules before ever scouting out the culture of the organization he’s now running. This story about a white hotel owner in New Mexico who told his Hispanic employees to change their first names to make them sound more American adds another dimension to that familiar workplace scenario.
What do you think of this episode? Does the hotel owner make a good point? Did he just go about implementing the change the wrong way? Or is his perspective flawed from the get-go?
Unbelievable! I like and agree with one of the comments in the article, describing Whitten as “a racist out of ignorance.” I’ve seen quite a bit of that lately and I suspect it will increase as we become more and more diverse as a country. Instead of insisting that his employees change, did he ever consider taking classes to learn Spanish? I’m should they would have been more responsive to him had they seen some good faith effort on his part versus coming in like the new sheriff, kicking butt and taking names. Also, it’s quite demeaning to ask someone to change something so personal like their name to suit others. Would he have asked the same of an Anglo with a hard to pronounce name for his Hispanic clientele?
Oh my goodness! I can’t believe this. Or maybe I should since it seems we’re hearing more reports like this one everyday with black and Latino kids being kicked out of swimming pools and judges refusing to marry interracial couples and on it goes. God have mercy on us.