Pretty sure this belongs here.
Recently my husband and I moved to the city because I promoted in my job of 2 years and got a big pay bump and transferred locations (not just bc of the promotion also external reasons)
Something I have not understood for a long time is that he will put in his applications and it still takes him 1-4 months to get a job. Its seriously not for the lack of trying. He puts his applications in pretty much everywhere! And calls to follow up. We have been together 4ish years and married for one, so I changed names after I already had a job.
Its 2 am. Im thinking about how we have lived here a month and he is still struggling to find a job. And it just occoured to me, dont know why it didnt before: its most probably because he has a foreign sounding name.
Ive seen many stories in my time both from employers and employees who will tell you that if you have a foreign sounding name (or even go as far as to say if it says immigrant/not a citzen or something on the application) it will immediately get thrown out. Its one of the many stupid practices in corporate america.
Its got me so frustrating. All this BS secret rules. Like for example, I am religious, and I am pretty high up in management here. If I insist I cannot work sundays because I go to church, legally, they have to accomodate that. But it immediately takes me off any kind of promotion list. Nobody will want me to move up. I know that.
They always talk about diversity and stuff like that. “Celebrate pride month” they say. “Celebrate black history month” they say. Ive been told we are “so accommodating and flexible”. I remember a story from my old boss how a member of corporate management wore some sort of culturally formal traditional african tribal clothing to something that was “formal attire” and was pretty much immediately fired. My old boss happens to be mexican and has been trying to promote for a long time and for some reason they just wont do it. (Now hes just an old bitter man who frequently jokes about how “well they cant fire me either. Im brown. Im their 'diversity'.”)
This makes me so sad. Being married to an immigrant has opened my eyes to so many things, somethings I now experience personally with him. How we treat minorities in this country really just… Makes me feel a lot of things, lol.
I havent told my husband my realization. He already hates his name because of how much its mocked for how it sounds, etc… I love it. I think its beautiful. The fact that it is probably why he cant get a job easily is heartbreaking. Idk I just needed to get this out … Who else has stories like this?