It’s sad that there’s just another story of blatant racism that someone has to deal with in their everyday life. Just another reminder of how alive and well racism truly is. In this case, it starts with a Vietnamese immigrant named Minh Huynh who was applying for a job. Minh had more than ample experience at the job but English was obviously a second language. As intimidating as that can be that didn’t detur Minh from applying for the position but his daughter was shocked when she saw the email he had received from the companies HR manager. Bruce Peterson racist response was obviously unprofessional and inappropriate but I just can’t imagine choosing to treat someone like that. Simply because they grew up somewhere else but are still trying to work and put their best foot forward. It just doesn’t make sense.
Of course, speaking English is a perfectly acceptable qualification to have to be hired for a particular job. The insane amount of unprofessionalism and blatant racism is frankly disgusting. It was just so unnecessary to respond in this manner but there are just some awful people out there just like Bruce Peterson. Luckily Minh’s daughter Emily shared the ridiculous response to Twitter and the internet prevailed once again. It’s awesome that Emily’s tweets went viral for the right reasons. It helps bring a light to the discrimination immigrants still face every single day. Luckily Emily’s dad seems to be a pretty incredible guy. Emily shared a few of her and her father’s feelings about the matter.
My dad told me that he isn’t that ‘hurt’ by it. There’s a big stigma around Asian immigrant parents that deal with this all the time. They brush it off because they don’t understand the depth of the situation. People always use micro-aggression with or without knowing they do which is a big concern when it comes to the treatment of future citizens. I’m just disgusted.”