On a pleasant Friday evening a friend told me the story of cultural discrimination in the UK. She described how she had appeared for an interview and testing for an editorial position. The first of many rounds was a test of English grammar and she scored full marks. The second round was spotting the errors and she did well. Then came the interview and she thought that the panel seemed rather impressed with her responses. She then patiently waited to hear back.

A week later she heard back from the company. She was told that they were very happy with her performance at the interview, but couldn’t offer her the job as they felt that she would not fit in to the culture of the office.

She described her shock at the feedback and how to this day she struggled to come to terms with this blatant discrimination based on culture. Funnily enough the advertisement for the job had not specified any culture.

That was the UK, I thought in my head. This is New Zealand and this is something that would not happen here.

Now, my own situation was that I worked in a good job. An area where not too many Indians are employed, but over the years I have not really felt too many differences due to colour or race. So therefore, overlooking the minor undercurrents that you would possibly take in your stride, I did believe that discrimination was not really a part of our everyday working. However, they say that reality is always revealed in the crucial moment, I was about to come face to face with my own rude reality.

Having worked really hard at my job and having done well, I was in a place where the move up was inevitable. I applied for a management position but did not make my first attempt. I was given detailed feedback and advised that I was one of the top contenders for the job but lacked experience in a crucial area of the organisation’s function and if I managed to get that, I would be ready to step up.

I took the feedback on board. I moved to the area of work and put in even more hard work than ever before. Not a week went by when my work was not appreciated by the management. I thought I was on my way. The positions came around once again and I applied for the job. This time, confident that I would make it as the only thing that I lacked was experience in one area which I had not just got now, but had also done well at.

To my shock and horror, I received the same letter, regretting to inform me that I had not been offered the job. This time however, the feedback was something that completely blew me away. I was told that it seemed that I “had not understood the questions clearly, so my responses were off track”.

So just a couple of months ago, in my first attempt, I had answered the very same questions and done well. This time, having had a couple of months to prepare, having received coaching on how to answer, I had been asked the very same questions again and not understood?

The more I thought of it, the more it did not make sense. Then someone said to me – “it does not matter what you say- what matters is who is listening to you”. That’s when the feedback made complete sense. 

Here I was, an Indian, pushing for a management position, in a white world, but English is my second language and so when I was asked questions in English, I did not quite understand them
and so my responses were off track!

I may have been better educationally qualified than the people on the interview panel, actually way more qualified, I may have lived in New Zealand for over a decade, I may have been with the organization for years and let my work speak for itself and I may have been the perfect fit for the job and yet – I was not going to be able to do anything about the colour of my skin.

The author of this article wishes to remain anonymous and we respect that. If you have felt this subtle working of racism in your workplace – share your story with us. Write to us at editor@indianweekender.co.nz