Discrimination in Miami against a white Anglo? (Hialeah: fit in, buying)

[things and stuff]

Hello everyone, I know this is probably a sore and touchy subject but I recently visited your fine city and had a few negative experiences. I am not sure what to take away from that since it could have been a fluke.

I spent 4 weeks in downtown Miami working as a consultant in the IT field. What I experienced was that my ethnicity was brought up numerous times, which is something I am not accustomed to. I work with a pretty diverse group of people and nothing like this has really ever happened in our many travels around the country doing jobs.

At the company we did work for, the supervisor asked me what my "background" was. He said "oh, so you're just white". He then ignored me and started talking to my 2 coworkers who were both foreign-born. The supervisor, accompanied by his entire team and the CIO, then made a comment about making sure that I wasn't the only person working on the project because then it would be boring (referring to my white bread background.) Nobody seemed to have a problem with this attitude. It seemed absolutely common place to identify themselves as and to size each other up by their cultural background, as if it were the most important variable about a person.

Ah, but this wasn't the only experience. My coworkers and I went out quite a bit while we were in town. My Pakistani coworker brought her husband, who is white. We had several derogatory comments made towards us about being hicks (strange, I'm a Jew but I never felt the need to bring it up). One beefed up white guy randomly felt the need to tell my coworker that she shouldn't be with a white guy. I guess he didn't consider himself to be white because he spoke spanish? I'm not sure how this racism stuff is supposed to work.

Kind of made me feel like I was black in 1960's Mississippi. Is there a glass ceiling for new anglos in Miami that DON'T have connections with the old guard of Anglos that are currently in high positions right now?

[lauralei2]

I grew up in Hialeah, and I would feel discrimination frequently. Many times I've gotten a look of bewilderment because I spoke English. Sometimes it was because I was a woman. One instance years ago, a male customer was taken care of before me, but I was in line first (buying cuban coffee at a walk up cafe window). Any how, yes, discrimination does occur.

[miami_zed]

I think it goes both ways. Hispanics can be racist against each other and try to fit in or give preferential treatment to "white anglos". It just depends on the person. I've felt like I've been judged negatively by both hispanics and anglos for "racist" reasons. I don't take it too personally.

One thing though is that Miami is a lot more open about its racism than other places. People aren't as concerned about being or appearing politically correct. Every other place has its judgmental people as well.

Anyways, I think you just had some bad luck with people that were just *******s in general. I would want to guess that maybe you were just around some uppity yuppieish people in downtown.....but then again downtown is where I see the most white anglos so I don't know.

[FlyMIA]

Seems like some bad luck to me. I have heard of people being ignored or looked down upon for speaking English and not Spanish which IMO is insane and a major problem in this city especially with the newer immigrants but nothing like that. Being pure white is the minority here. Even though Miami has a very large Jewish population. Many are actually Hispanics. But yea, a bit odd but it certainly can happen. That "gringo" type thing. Not sure why SOME Hispanics think like this, they have to understand at some point they live in the U.S.

[Surfside__]

Now you know what it feels like to be to be discriminated against for being a minority (white in a hispanic dominated area)

I'm not saying it's right that happened by any means, what I'm saying is, the lesson here is you got to step in a minorities shoes

and this is what hispanics, and blacks deal with on a day to day basis in america.

[WINTERFRONT]

How do you know is discrimination though? I get worst treatment in Miami from people of all races and ethnicities - I have black hair - but I don't define their actions as ethnic discrimination. I just know they have bad temper, that's it.

I've also seen people of the same race, but from different nationalities, fighting against each other shouting nationalistic slurs.

When it comes to discrimination it comes based on nationality... not race or ethnicities.

To the OP....

It;s not that they are discriminating against you just. It's just that they don't find you interesting enough. That doesn't mean they hate you, or think that you are inferior or are plotting a way to get you killed.

What I'm trying to say here is that everyone is given a bad treatment, there is no "antiwhite anglo only" agenda.

[Cocoricoco]

The O.P should forget about saying that he's White or Anglo, such a thing will tag him as "Hick".

In Miami there are many Hispanics that are white, there are also many Hispanics that are Jewish.

You should define yourself as Jewish.

[HarryWho?]

How about we step back a little bit and see this for what it is. 99% of this stuff is just human nature and starts off as harmless ribbing. Someone takes it a little too seriously and it escalates. As you can see from the OP and the post above. Let it go. It's not worth it.

[Cocoricoco]

What I'm trying to say here is that everyone is given a bad treatment, there is no "antiwhite anglo only" agenda.

+++++++

There's an "anti-hick" agenda.

But the O.P. is Jewish, and Jews are no hicks and they are part of the city, hut he loves to be considered a hick for some reason.

[things and stuff]

Originally Posted by Cocoricoco

You should define yourself as Jewish.

I think you missed the point entirely.

What's with Miami's obsession with labeling everyone by religion or ethnicity? I could think of 100 things about me that are more indicative of who I am than my ethnic heritage. I don't care if you're Hispanic, black, or Jewish. I'm still going to size you up based on real qualities and not based on preconceptions of groups.

I hire and promote people based on merit and merit alone.