#89: My bum is black!

An earlier article penned by me in 2016 spoke about discrimination in the Middle East - a myth or reality!

Below is the abridged and appended version...

Suddenly the world has woken up to discrimination and you see a lot of trending hashtags like #Black lives matter, #Blackout Tuesday etc but as far as I know, discrimination can be traced back many centuries. 

Unfortunately, our prejudices are brought to life by our parents, our peer groups and the society we live in. So if we want to change our kids, we will have to first change ourselves! 

"Discrimination based on race" 

Unbelievable but true. I can see you shaking your heads in disbelief. Yes, I know...

No one wants to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Companies and recruiters pretend it does not exist. We would also like to believe that it does not exist.

Just speak with some of my Asian colleagues and the stories are not very pleasing to the ear. 

I guess as modern day society pretends to evolve, issues like discrimination are best hidden under the rug. After all, who wants to believe that in the digital age such an archaic old world mentality still exists.

The Middle East has always been a place that favoured a lighter complexion and a more powerful passport. Call it an affliction or an obsession, there has always been an undertone that favoured one race and discriminated the other on the basis of upbringing, education, quality of life, etc. 

I have lived in Dubai for over 15 years but even I am hard pressed to acknowledge that there are a lot of companies, recruiters that do not operate on merit but on race. They won't tell you outright to your face as that would not be a very evolved thing to do so they will operate covertly behind the shadows.

Around 10 years ago, a leading Dubai based luxury retailer had shortlisted my CV and called me for an interview. Mysteriously, just before the date the HR Department called me back to cancel my interview under the pretext that they decided to promote internally. Funnily enough they continuously advertised for the same position for the next 6 months on their website and many overseas based job portals.

It's obvious to me that while I got through the company's recruitment software having ticked all the right keywords, it's only when my nationality became apparent to the recruitment officer, the dynamics changed.

I say this categorically, as with me working for Saks Fifth Avenue, I was one of the few candidates at that time applying for the advertised role who would have the relevant skills set, actual market knowledge and depth of experience. 

Infact this experience was not a one off experience and was repeated on two occasions, One with a leading Middle Eastern Duty Free and another with a leading Luxe French maison! 

"Sad but true, is that one race that has suffered enormously over the past few centuries - The Asians" 

With unemployment levels in the northern continent hitting unprecedented levels in the last decade, there has been an exodus of mainly unskilled humans from that part of the world that are making a killing with Middle Eastern companies.

Somehow companies here are smitten with the colour of skin and this has been observed through the centuries.

"The rule of thumb is that the lighter your complexion, the heavier your package!"

In one of my previous Organisations, if you happened to walk around the office building at lunch time, you would be forgiven for believing that you were somewhere in Europe! The mandate there was simple. Fire all the low paid Asians who made the company what it was and replace them with highly paid Western counterparts taking the cost up by 50%.

One year down the line, when the sales contracted instead of moving up north, it is anybody's guess as to what happened. Pride goes on horseback but comes back begging its path!

Just look at old world raj of the British, Spanish, Portuguese or the Dutch for that matter who ruled over and plundered the so called third world countries.

"Old world slavery had taken on a new avatar in preferential recruiting and subtle discrimination at the work place" 

This can be seen at interviews and also with salary packages and benefits. The past 10 years unfortunately has not a good time to be an Asian in the Middle East. 

Few companies are willing to take a chance on you and right uphill the recent past, the hidden mandate of most companies to recruiters was to get the lighter complexioned people into the business and sadly, Asians booted out of the door. I myself missed several opportunities in the past due to my black bum and oft lamented on the what if's of having a different passport! 

Having said that, I believe that the time has come for a major reset in the Middle East. While this was a long time coming, Covid has surely accelerated this change. 

"This reset will be a good one that transcends race, colour, creed or nationality"

This reset will force companies to access people purely on their abilities and only the fittest will survive. No passport will come to the rescue!

Covid-19 will effectively remove all barriers of inequality, thus, the Middle East will return to its original roots - one where only talent thrived and nationalities were not discriminated against based on their skin colour or because of preconceived notions!

What are your thoughts? Do share your comments with me in the comments below...