Missing the Target?

Everybody is not the same.  That statement may surprise some people, but the fact is different groups of people occasionally dress certain ways, eat particular foods, communicate in certain ways, and generally behave in ways different from one another.  The idea that our differences make us stronger is at the heart of our national identity.  “E Pluribus Unum.”  From many, one.  A danger emerges, however, when one group maintains a belief about another that may or may not fully reflect the realities of the situation.  This is called a stereotype, and it is part of a recently-filed discrimination lawsuit against Target stores.

As reported in the Courthouse News Service, three former Target employees are suing the superstore chain claiming they endured harassment and discrimination, and were fired in retaliation for complaining about it.  One exhibit in the lawsuit is a memo Target allegedly sent to its distribution warehouse managers, entitled “Organizational Effectiveness, Employee and Labor Relations Multi-Cultural Tips.”  Some of the tips regarding Hispanic employees, which several media outlets reported, stated:

“a. Food: not everyone eats tacos and burritos;

b. Music: not everyone dances to salsa;

c. Dress: not everyone wears a sombrero;

d. Mexicans (lower education level, some may be undocumented);

e. Cubans (Political refugees, legal status, higher education level); and

f. They may say 'OK, OK' and pretend to understand, when they do not, just to save face."

On their face, these tips seem inappropriate if not racist.  It seems to me, however, to be a misguided attempt to avoid something of a double-edged sword.  I imagine the struggled thought process in Target’s Human Resources Department in developing these tips went something like this:

Step 1/ Target recognizes cultural diversity among its workforce.

Step 2/ Target desires increased cultural awareness and sensitivity among those managing its workforce.

Step 3/ One way to increase cultural awareness and sensitivity is to dispel existing negative stereotypes.

Step 4/ In order to dispel existing stereotypes, we must first identify what those negative stereotypes are and then acknowledge that they exist.

Step 5/ After we identify negative stereotypes and acknowledge they exist, we must show how they are wrong.

Image by Lalo Alcaraz, July 11, 2013, copyright 2013
Available at http://www.gocomics.com/laloalcaraz/2013/07/11

By stating that not all individuals dress similarly or eat the same foods, Target seems to acknowledge diversity within a particular ethnic group.  Indeed, it would have been patently racist had the document read “All Hispanics wear sombreros and eat tacos.”  Further, by identifying individual groups who compose the category “Hispanic,” the company seems to want to heighten its managers’ awareness that, point in fact, all Hispanics are not the same.  I have suggested before that homogenizing categories like “Hispanic” or “Latino” obviate the rich cultural heritages of people with ancestral roots in Latin American countries.  The Target memo at the very least seems to acknowledge the diversity of those cultural heritages.

Some readers may think, “But who would need to be told so explicitly that these existing stereotypes and generalities are wrong?”  My answer is, “You would be surprised.”  I imagine a large number of people maintain ignorant misconceptions of Hispanics and Latinos in the United States.  Some individuals undoubtedly are willful and racist, but I believe that the majority are just uninformed or under-informed, due largely to a limited or lack of exposure to people from Hispanic and Latino backgrounds.  Two of the several personal experiences confronting people’s ignorance I have had over years illustrate this point.  The first was in 1983 at the start of my high school freshman year Spanish I class.  The conversation with the student seated behind me went something like this:

STUDENT: So this class should be pretty easy for you, huh?

ME: Why do you say that?

STUDENT: Well, your last name is Alvarez, isn’t it?

ME: So what?

STUDENT: Well, you’re Mexican.  This is in your blood so it should come easy for you.

Fast forward about 20 years later, when I am attending a house party of a fellow graduate student who has displayed, not prominently but not inconspicuously, an over-sized novelty sombrero.  That conversation went something like this:

ME: What’s with the sombrero?

HOST: What do you mean?

ME: It might be kind of racist.

HOST: Do you think so?  I got it at "Chi Chi’s" [Mexican restaurant chain]

My point here is not to say whether or not Target discriminated against in employees by composing and distributing the memo in question.  It also is not to say whether or not the managerial tips were discriminatory.  All of that is for the courts to decide.  Rather, my point is to ask, “Why do these stereotypes exist and even prevail?”  To cry “Racism” in answer to this question is a too simplistic knee-jerk reaction.  Such an answer is not likely to result in any open-minded engagement or mind-opening dialog across cultures; which I think should be the goal in our multicultural, E Pluribus Unum society.