By Younas Chaudhary
I grew up in a middle-class family in a remote village in Pakistan. The society was anchored to a centuries old tribal culture with unique customs and traditions. My father, land-rich and cash poor, was a village chief, so he was highly regarded and respected by the local villagers.
There was no Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in those days! The ordinary villagers and servants had to bow before the chief and landlords. They could not stand anywhere close to their superiors. If they came to meet their superiors, they would walk into the room, meet, and walk backwards because showing their backs to their chief and landlords was considered disrespectful.
Growing up among a myriad of class divisions, I saw servants eat on separate plates, drink in mugs earmarked for them, and they were not allowed to eat with any utensils in their superior’s house. Sadly, this level of discrimination still exists in some parts of Southeast Asia.
I often questioned my father why servants and other villagers were being treated so poorly. His response was that it was part of centuries-long customs and traditions practiced in the villages. I became disappointed seeing people being treated differently but over the years I too became immune to this caste-based hierarchy.
Everything changed when I arrived in Canada in late 1973, where I was a rare brown young man in a sea of white people. I had to shed my privilege of being a village chief’s son. No one bowed here, no one drank in separate glasses and no one walked backwards!
In Edmonton, my incessant longing to see another brown person other than my brother was not satisfied until he took me to a local discount shop called Army & Navy Store! For the first time, I saw a few brown people together at one place! I became friends with a salesperson, an Indian Sikh, and it was a great experience talking to him in Punjabi. I liked being in the middle of my people so much that I often frequented the Army & Navy store.
In my first job as a welder’s assistant, I became a brown guy working alongside heavily built European nationals. I was intimidated by their body size, their language, and their eating habits. I did not like the sight of their food, especially the bologna sandwich or its smell as I was used to eating rotis (flat leavened bread) back home. My co-workers had a sense of curiosity as if I were an alien in their midst and they wondered if the world had more people of color!
Later, while driving taxi part time in Edmonton, I faced real discrimination from local teenagers who would shout and try to bully me and other immigrants by yelling “Paki go home!” This was the universal local insult those days for intimidating anyone brown as young, white Canadians never knew the difference between a Pakistani or an Indian. This irked my Indian friends because they disliked being called Paki in the middle of the Indo-Pak war!
During my acculturation and assimilation into Western society, except for small pockets of discrimination, most Canadians were very kind to me. They would give me rides in their cars in freezing weather and were friendly. In 1979 I moved to the USA, where I had the opportunity to mingle with all kinds of people from different ethnicities.
One question that I have been asked often is how we can end discrimination in hiring. A lesson I have learned is that it is not the most highly educated but it is the most dedicated employees that I’ve hired who have done the best. When I was fully active in my oil business, I hired a few guys who were new bank tellers. They had no clue about oil and gas work but they quickly learned the tricks of the trade working with me. They learned a decade’s worth of knowledge within a short period of time because I encouraged co-workers to be dedicated, invest their time, be consistent and think out of the box. Most of them are in high positions in the energy industry today as they received a solid footing working with us.
In a world where there is so much emphasis on employee hiring and DEI, I believe the best employees are the ones who are the most dedicated to their jobs. Neither their color of skin, educational attachments or ability to speak English matters. All that matters is dedication to work and your zeal to progress!
Meanwhile, “Paki go home!” still exists in certain parts of the world and certain ignorant people and bigots survive in our societies despite all the progress we have made as a human race. Stay Blessed.
Disclaimer
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article are my own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which I have been, am now, or will be affiliated. Further, I make no warranty regarding the accuracy or effectiveness of my recommendations, and readers are advised to consult other advisors as well as their own judgments in making business decisions.
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