DiversityInc - September 2008

1Don’t worry, you’ll get the promotion—you’re Latino.

This comment tells the Latino person that his or her ethnicity speaks louder than accomplishments; it’s a classic affirmative-action stereotype that Latinos and Blacks deal with constantly. Donna Maria Blancero heard that comment regularly when she was the lone Latina professor at a university in Arizona. Now the senior vice president of research and intellectual development at the National Society for Hispanic MBAs, Blancero says her methods of coping changed over the years. “At first it would leave me speechless and then leave me angry,” she says.

After years of hearing that line, Blancero started to respond with, “Really? I thought it was because I had a Ph.D. from an Ivy League university, teaching awards and a publishing record.”

2 When did you arrive in this country? This comment assumes that everyone of Latin descent is a foreigner.

3Hola! Habla inglés? This question is patronizing, especially when those three words are the only Spanish the speaker knows. Just speak English.

4Do you live with your parents? Don’t assume that because someone is Latino, he doesn’t live on his own. When Jim Huerta worked for a white man who was president of the division, his boss asked him if he lived with his parents. “I would at first joke to try

to make him see I was uncomfortable, but finally I stopped answering him,” he says. “He slowed it down, but keep in mind this guy was a money maker for the firm.

“You almost have to bite your tongue until there’s a little blood seeping out the side of your cheek,” Huerta says. “If you get angry and offensive, it’s not a matter of right or wrong. It’s a matter of a senior leader saying you’re too sensitive.”

5You’re not like them. “My first response is ‘How do they act?’ because I might say, ‘Well, I do act like that,’” Huerta says.

6Can you show me your knife?

Raymond Arroyo, chief diversity officer at Aetna, one of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies, was asked this question by a sales associate 20 years ago when he traveled to Toronto with three other Latino executives. At the time, mainstream news reports out of New York City were focusing on Puerto Rican gangs wielding knifes.

Arroyo suggests that Latino executives, when facing such prejudicial comments, not “be too sensitive, and educate [people] when you can.”

7Why don’t all you Latinos stop doing that? This statement assumes that because a person is Latino, he or she can influence an entire group. Latinos certainly are a varied group, from different countries of origin and with different races/ ethnicities/cultural backgrounds. Lumping them all together is a

common and silly assumption. “The question is steeped in stereotypes,” says Federico Preuss, counsel at Aetna. “Another stereotype is that ... because we are Hispanic or Latino, we are going to solve the problems of our communities. They will come to us with questions about selling [to Latinos] or human-resources questions.”

8You’re not white. Earlier in his career, Preuss was filling out forms as a new employee when a human-resources executive asked, “What are you?” Preuss, who is from Argentina and whose grandfather is from Germany, has a typical “white look.” Latinos can be of any race.

9Butchering a Latino’s last name.

“It’s no one’s fault,” says Preuss, who has given up trying to correct people who mispronounce his last name. At Aetna, while other executives may refer to each other using surnames, most times people refer to Preuss using his first name, Federico.