Racism is alive and well.

[Salesmonkey]

Someone told me that it was a very common thing for people from India or Pakistan in the USA to run motels and hotels. It's kind of the cliche job for the community. I can't remember who told me. Is this true at all ?
Victoria J

The motel where I worked was owned by Patels. They were very friendly and open, and willing to talk about their culture.

So the impression I got was that the hospitality industry was one of the preferred trades for a number of reasons.
1. Most of the Patels are from Gujarat province. It's kind of an extended family - clan - cousins thing. They keep up with one another, and have reunion parties on the holidays and that sort of stuff. They can support and help each other because they have similar businesses.
2. There is a culture of in-family lending that helps them get started. My boss bought the hotel with money from his father's friends, who had started their businesses with money lent from the boss's grandfather.
3. The boss's family was Brahmin, which meant that certain of the starter or entry level jobs for immigrants were considered religiously unsuitable. Hospitality was a way to make a living that did not conflict with their beliefs.
4. Running a hotel is also a decent way to raise a family and to allow the family to help with financing the family. Teenagers can start by cleaning rooms, and then work maintenance, and the front desk. It teaches business skills, responsibility, and improves the finances of the family.

I rather miss the Boss and his family. They would cook special Indian dinners for the staff for Thanksgiving and Christmas. My town has an Indian restaurant now but it is feeble compaired to the Patels' home cookin'.

[Victoria J]

Apologies for the complete hijack.

I guess the point I'm making is that look hard enough and you can see a lot of any business run by a certain group and call it a cliche.

Maybe the word cliche wasn't accurate - I used it as kind of indication that I know not everyone will fit the pattern. It's the most obvious career choice not the only one.

I'm not trying to judge anyone - I am fascinated by patterns of immigration. I do live in east London so the patterns of immigration make up a huge part of are history from the influence of Huguenot weavers (and indeed before that) to the influx of Poles recently so that the high street I work on now has 3 Polish Shops.

And then some things are so obvious like setting up selling food from your country, and some are so random like the Italian shops in Wales.

Also, "Patel" is a very common name. Like "Jones" or "Smith" so don't bother expecting them to be all related.

I expected them not to be related at all given it is indeed a common name. I discovered that substantial numbers of newsagent Patels in the UK do have family connections. I'm not sure how much of that was existing and how much is because they spend time together and have married into each other's families.

In the UK, it's newsagents and little shops. I know that sounds a bit racist, but I've lost count of the number of newsagents and little shops I've seen being run by Pakistanis. And run very well, I might add; the one down the road from me is hellishly efficient and is run by a family, so they get all the profits without having to pay employees.

I don't think that it's racist at all to note a real pattern. Assuming everyone with that ethnic background should be running a newsagents would be racist - but that's a world away for noticing those who do.

It's not like running a newsagent is a bad thing either. It's a real contribution to a community to have good little shops.

1. Most of the Patels are from Gujarat province. It's kind of an extended family - clan - cousins thing. They keep up with one another, and have reunion parties on the holidays and that sort of stuff. They can support and help each other because they have similar businesses.
2. There is a culture of in-family lending that helps them get started. My boss bought the hotel with money from his father's friends, who had started their businesses with money lent from the boss's grandfather.
3. The boss's family was Brahmin, which meant that certain of the starter or entry level jobs for immigrants were considered religiously unsuitable. Hospitality was a way to make a living that did not conflict with their beliefs.
4. Running a hotel is also a decent way to raise a family and to allow the family to help with financing the family. Teenagers can start by cleaning rooms, and then work maintenance, and the front desk. It teaches business skills, responsibility, and improves the finances of the family.

I rather miss the Boss and his family. They would cook special Indian dinners for the staff for Thanksgiving and Christmas. My town has an Indian restaurant now but it is feeble compaired to the Patels' home cookin'.

Yes ! 1 and 2 particularly. When you know a significant number of people in a certain trade it does become easier to set up and I think the thing is kind of self-perpetuating.

I had no idea about 3 though. That's fascinating.

Indian food - mmm. There's a huge amount of Indian food here but it doesn't seem to be such a big thing in the USA (?). If so you are all missing out.

The colleague I share an office with is from an Indian background (via Africa but they'd passed down the cooking skills while they were moving around the world) and gives me recipes. But so far I'm struggling to make my kitchen up to standard for proper cooking.

Victoria J

[GingerBiscuit]

On the OP, that guy was a class A moron. I hope he gets blacklisted.

Oh trust me. Whats left of his file is covered with notes like 'DO NOT SERVE. RACIST WANKSOCK'

Bwahahah. I can pretty much guarantee he will find that only the hospital will test his eyes soon...as in the UK an awful lot of medical jobs are filled by Black People, Asian People etc... and that includes opticians, dentists etc. So soon there will be NOWHERE willing to test him.

[Lace Neil Singer]

It's not like running a newsagent is a bad thing either. It's a real contribution to a community to have good little shops.

Hell yes. I forgot to add that said people do employ teens to deliver papers. They have major kudos from me cuz they hired me, a girl, to do that when I was a kid; unlike the other paper shop in the area who refused me employment cuz they said that the bag of papers might be too heavy for me to carry.

[Victoria J]

Oh trust me. Whats left of his file is covered with notes like 'DO NOT SERVE. RACIST WANKSOCK'

Bwahahah. I can pretty much guarantee he will find that only the hospital will test his eyes soon...as in the UK an awful lot of medical jobs are filled by Black People, Asian People etc... and that includes opticians, dentists etc. So soon there will be NOWHERE willing to test him.

And then when he gets older and needs real care - most of the hospital staff and the care home staff and the home helps etc. etc. aren't white.

Mt experience has been that the "worst" nursing jobs etc. always seem to go to nurse from abroad too - including lots of african and caribean nurses. So you see a huge number of such nurses in elderly care, in the care of those who are senile, in the more serious mental health wards. Care homes are even more extreme for this because some of their care work is in jobs where they don't care much about ability to speak English as long as you can understand instructions. So if someone wants something a bit better paid (though a lot more stressful) than hotel and restaurant cleaning jobs etc. and isn't afraid of working hard or too proud to do the dirty jobs - that's where they end up. Less and less people growing up in the UK seem willing to do these jobs.

In other words he better hope he dies suddenly - or the people bring him food and wiping his arse aren't likely to be mainly white. And with an attitude like his they'll hate him.

Victoria J

[Chanlin]

Almost every hotel in the area I live is owned by an Indian family, or at least the same family that owned the hotel I worked at also owns 8 other hotels around the area, so I don't doubt the cliche/stereotype is completely wrong.

[Rapscallion]

Oh trust me. Whats left of his file is covered with notes like 'DO NOT SERVE. RACIST WANKSOCK'

I used to know someone who ...

Er, never mind.

Rapscallion

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Oh trust me. Whats left of his file is covered with notes like 'DO NOT SERVE. RACIST WANKSOCK'

Wanksock.

Consider that one stolen permanently borrowed.

[GingerBiscuit]

Wanksock.

Consider that one stolen permanently borrowed.

I like it as an insult. Especially if you add 'crusty'.

[KiaKat]

I like it as an insult. Especially if you add 'crusty'.

StoledededAdded to Insult Book.

I know a few people who deserve this title.

[dalesys]

"Crusty wanksocker"

Gives a whole new flavor to the concept of sockpuppeting.