We work in the travel/hospitality industry. Openly racist requests form agents based abroad, especially Russia, China and Saudi Arabia are annoying but not uncommon. The requests however are starting to get me down.
Last week a UK (ltd) agency dealing with Chinese customers made a request on the phone to one of our staff for as many whites as possible. The member of staff dealt with it well but was thrown. They then followed it up in writing stating “whites are of course preferable” and then again on the booking document “This client is VIP and must stay with a white family”.
Our staff then called to say this would not be possible, isn’t legal or ethical etc etc. Their Director got in a right strop and demanded to speak with me. I then had to have the same argument for the next hour, in the end as I wouldn’t compromise or accommodate her request, she hung up on me.
The frustrating thing is, she will now go to another agency who will, just quietly take her money and meet her request. The agency know this and are therefore so open with their requests. This is a UK based Ltd company and should not be able to trade in this way. I do not want to lose focus on business during peak season or get involved in a in a public spat which will damage our company. However, I would love to report them if it would make a difference.
Any advice.
P.S. To pre-empt bear, I do not work in the salve or sex industry.
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Dunno what the problem is really, is it that you ain’t got any whites?
My boss reckons that when he took clients to Las Vegas, he had to buy them all prostitutes, and one of them, right, turned out to be a paedophile, and specifically asked for a “very young looking” girl, like that bro in Game of Thrones. My boss, right, had to facilitate that. He done it tho, cos he is Professional Business Man of Limited Morality.
Difficult one Tokes.
The problem is that you are trying to apply your British Values with a foreign set of values. It is always impossible.
In a PC manner - you could never accomodate an Aussie as you guys simply do not understand the concept of throwing a shrimp on a Barbie. You put cheap skanky sausages & burgers on them (or something you saw on the food network that never works)
How many Black people do you see in China? (Or Japan for that matter). Would someone coming from “ABROAD” not be disappointed to discover that the UK’s National Dish is actually Chicken Tikka Masala NOT Fish & Chips? Would you place a Pork eating Chinese with a Muslim family during Ramadan?
My advice is that you can only adhere to the standards of the Country that you are in and the ideals you hold. But because UK is now so multi-cultural, why do you assume that all of your compeitors i) hold your values or ii) aren’t Chinese/Asian owned?
Everyone has their values you stand by them. You will also go bust by them.
BUT you can never believe that you should impose your standards on others, so you should NEVER be annoyed at your competitors.
It is their culture and their experience. Why you bothered? You Brits won’t make every Chinese PC, It ain’t your job do what you think is right and walk on.
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Afraid I haven’t got any advice, Tokes; however, I can understand perfectly well why you would love to report them. Why wouldn’t this make a difference?
Also, what exactly do you mean by: “made a request on the phone to one of our staff for as many whites as possible”?
So, it is illegal to assign people by racial/seual/cultural preferences. But why not create a PC work-around?
It is NOT illegal to “discriminate” based on “lifestyle choices” - eg Dietary requests.
So you get your accomodators to provide their menus. Then only put forward the ones offering Full English Breakfast, Roast Pork Dinners, rather than Couscous/Kebab/Jamaican Jerk.(OR WHATEVER THE CURRENT PC EQUIVALENT IS IN UK!)
Down here we had a “nutter” from outside the UAE who complained that around 1 in 100 restaurants here are allowed to serve Pork. He ranted that this was not allowed in a Muslim Country and he was offended at being in a restaurant and having people eat Pork near him. It was pointed out that 1) he was a Brit 2) Why was he in a restaurant serving ALCOHOL if he was so observant of his culture and 3) The locals locked him up for offending their way of tolerance.
Fair play to you sir. I applaud your ethics and if your company stand up to this sort behaviour, then you have the right business ethics.
You or may think that the loss financially for turning down this business may hurt your company, but not as much as if you had excepted and the news leaked out, that you company had done so.
Stick to your guns. You have done the correct thing.
Oh and if you have the evidence in writing, then I would 100% report them. Name and shame!
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Contact the Sun and/or the Mail, that will put the other company bang to rights.
Are you UK based then Tokes? I am confused? If you are UK based then you should definitely report the other company!
DP says you can’t force our ways on other cultures but the other culture is coming to this country and should follow our rules.
Are there really rules over clear racism? Surely there is not a rule? It is ethically wrong no matter what country you are in surely?
I TOTALLY agree with that. My point is that in other cultures they may not even cross their mind let alone think this is wrong.
It is not easy to do the right thing ethically or morally. Especially when the planet doesn’t hold the same morals (IS see nothing wrong in what they do to people in Iraq & Syria…)
But what can he report? He cannot report the agent, he is simply transmitting a request. What evidence does he have that the other competitor is doing this (ie HARD evidence not “heresay” ) Tokes refers to a phone call so very hard to get that to stand up in court and even harder to defend a libel action if that is all you have to support you.
Originally posted by @Dubai_Phil
But what can he report? He cannot report the agent, he is simply transmitting a request. What evidence does he have that the other competitor is doing this (ie HARD evidence not “heresay” ) Tokes refers to a phone call so very hard to get that to stand up in court and even harder to defend a libel action if that is all you have to support you.
OK, I agree with that so follow my initial, tongue in cheek, suggestion and dob them in to the popular press.
They can always do their thing then “make their excuses” and leave.
Originally posted by @Dubai_Phil
What evidence does he have that the other competitor is doing this (ie HARD evidence not “heresay” ) Tokes refers to a phone call so very hard to get that to stand up in court and even harder to defend a libel action if that is all you have to support you.
Agree, the above would seem be the stumbling block as regards pursuing this. Annoyingly so.
Sorry for slack replies, been busy. Unbelievably with another racist Chinese. I can cope and understand if they are based outside of the UK, put it down to cultural differences, lack of exposure etc.
However, this is a UK based company, registered at companies house. Who would you report them to? Should I tweet Jason Roberts? Call trading standards? The police? I don’t want to do something which will be loads of work just for the police/trading standards to file it away.
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In regards to taking this sort of thing to the newspapers, a few years ago my sister noticed in the terms and conditions of an activity-centre where she was intending to stay that there was a cleverly worded clause giving them the right to refuse double-rooms to same sex couples.
Although this didn’t actually affect my sister as such – she’s straight – she objected to it and took the matter up with the activity-centre and various other places. I can’t remember the exact details but essentially she didn’t get very far with it, so ended up approaching the local press. They said that they’d only be interested if they had proof that a gay couple had actually turned up and been physically turned away.
We have emailes stating:
“whites are of course preferable”
“This client is VIP and must stay with a white family"
To give a bit of background, this is host family accommodation for international students.
Going to the press isn’t really an option. I don’t want to be a Rosa Parks over it, it is just something that annoyed me and it annoys me further that they will just go to a competitor who I know will meet their requests.
Then I would say that it is not business you want and you would be happier not accomodating it so don’t accomodate it.
Are you going to be majorly out of pocket if you lose these clients? Will your bosses be upset with you?
Believe it or not, I am the boss Btripz and yeah I am regular out of pocket as I don’t accommodate such requests.
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Principles v profits
It’s often a tricky one - what do your shareholders make of it?
Good on you for not accommodating such requests, I say.
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Well good on you Tokes, stick to your guns is what I say and advertise yourself as a “whatever you do with Principals”
not for me i hope he goes bankrupt + when he goes to debtors prison + asks for a cell with a straight bro who is non-rapist, they say soz, we cannot discriminate
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