The Other Side of Lost in Translation

2008年9月11日木曜日

If you were an Asian and spoke English with accent



About two years go, I desperately needed some work.
One of my friend, who is no longer in New York,
is a lawyer and have worked for several agencies in this city,
suggested me to apply the position of paralegal.
Though I had known paralegals were assistants for lawyers,
I had not known what exactly they did,
I asked him if I could really do that job,
as especially I did not have efficient level of English skill,
as you see here, I knew I even could not do proof readings.
He told me paralegal work from the three agencies he worked for
is fairly easy, basicaly an entry level assistant work
and still they pay $18 an hour.
So I said "Okay, I will give it a shot!"
He gave me tel# of those agencies
and sent an e-mails of recommendation to them as well.
So I called them and talked to the people
who were in charge of hiring paralegals.
They asked me to submit my resume by e-mail and I did that.
So the next phase was
to call them again to get the interview date.
As my friend suggested me not to call them too often
because they can be annoyed, I called them twice a week.
I did that about for three weeks but I could not catch them.
So next week I called them three time a week,
next week four times, next week five times
all different time zone but I was always told
they were away from the desk,
at the meeting, lunch break or gone for the day.
I eventually realized they were all avoiding me.

Agencies pay $18 a hour means that Lawfarms pay like $25.
If you send assistants to your clients for entry level work
and they pay $25 an hour, of course you like to send
a White person, or at least someone who speaks good English
without any accent, which is not me.

In this city, if you are an Asian who does not speak English,
you are a yellow monkey.
If you are an Asian who speaks English with accent,
you are still a subhuman.

I am an Asian who speaks English with a heavy accent
an have a very strange Asian name.
I have been living my life as a subhuman here,
which is my choice I did not have to stay here.
And I do not hate White people
because I know the racism does not discriminate.
Asians, Blacks, Hispanicks, they are all same.
All of them can be racistic as White.
On the other hand,
undeniably this society is dominated by White
and they do have power and control,
which means if you are not White,
more likely you are discriminated by White.
That is reality too.

And as American Whites are so well educated by Blacks
about race relations, they seldom show true colors.
So sometimes I cannot trust them.
even if they are smiling at me,
very possibly they think I am a yellow monkey.
Low class uneducated Blacks and Hispanicks,
if they look down Asians, they really show that.
So at least it is easier to tell.

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