I recently interviewed for an AWS role where one of the interviewers was an L8 (HM) in a well known AWS org. We started the interview with introductions and during his introduction he said something to the effect of - “Indians do not speak real English. What they speak is something different”. I am an Indian residing in the US for the last 20 years. I was shocked by this statement. I had always wanted to work for Amazon but having been in the Midwest for last 15 years and having faced my fair share of subtle racism, I am not sure anymore. Maybe it was a innocuous comment. Maybe he did it on purpose. What do you guys think? I can provide more context of the conversation if needed Edit1: A few people have commented that I should let the recruiter know. While that’s tempting, I don’t want to, because I don’t know what his intention was and why he said it. It certainly made me uncomfortable and made the conversation awkward for the next several minutes but I don’t want to destroy someone’s reputation unless I am a 100% sure he is a racist. So instead of telling the recruiter I am posting anonymously on Blind. Call it my way of sharing my experience with Amazon without maligning the specific individual. Edit2: Despite what you all say, I am not reporting the guy to the recruiter. The L8 was extremely professional for the rest of the interview as I have mentioned in several comments below. I am making a judgement call (see how I quoted a Amazon LP there, lol). Had I seen any other racist traits from the interviewer I would have talked to the recruiter right after the interview or maybe even walked out of the interview. Edit 3: Some folks are asking the reason for this post if I am not going to report the guy. My intent with the post was to understand Amazon’s culture from folks who have lived through it. And whether I could have the same experience once I join. Hence the poll. My intent was not to doxx the guy or to report to HR, specially when I am unsure of the intent. Also looks like this post touched a nerve with some people. I would ask everyone to keep their comments civil though. Thank you! Edit 4: this is hopefully the final edit. For those of you that have asked me why I blame Amazon for this one guy - I don’t. Heck I don’t even blame that one guy. It was just that it made me uncomfortable, plain and simple. Amazon is a large company with hundreds of thousands of employees. I don’t blame the company for one potential bad apple. Never have. Never will. My intention here as stated again and again was to gauge the general culture at Amazon in case I decide to join. Hence the poll. Thank you all for your valuable feedback! #amazonaws #engineering #amazon
The HM was a white dude, early to late 50s. Anything more and I would doxx the guy and I don’t want to do that.
Maybe a jealous and incompetent individual
I once had a white person comment on my accent and then the other white person told the first person it's not so nice to comment regarding accents.
I experienced a lot of condescending behavior and subtle racist remarks from white and Indian males in my interviews with Amazon. Rejected their offer and purged all intent of ever working there.
Newsflash: shitty ppl r everywhere regardless whether its amazon or not. Tell me an org or country exists where racism is nonexistent. Im all ears
Amazon has a more aggressive culture & hires more aggressive people. In the name of speaking directly people do stupid shit. I’ve been at many companies since, and a lot of companies don’t operate this way
Maybe, but would you say that to someone’s face who is of the same race? Also isn’t that a sweeping generalization of all Indians?
English is a dumb language that is the gist.
Hey- BCBSKS I have a few friends there! I don't know what's worse, subtle racism or overt racism. At least with overt racism you know where everyone stands.
As in at Bcbsks? Or at Amazon. I can tell you I have never seen racism at Bcbsks. My racism experience has been more in the supermarket with statements like go back to where you belong, one of my friends kid got told browns are never going to be American etc.
Nah I just meant in general. I would call that overt racism. Subtle racism is the kind that you are pretty sure is racism but you can't call it out without looking like you're over reacting.
Clearly a racist comment. No way to spin this as anything else.
If you don’t get or take the job, you should the recruiter.
I work in the Midwest dude. I have learnt over the years to neutralize my accent so my coworkers don’t have a problem understanding me. The comment was general in nature not directed towards me.
Thanks for your hard work on that front. I have worked with indians that weren't able to improve on that. I'm not an American, btw. Having the usual Indian accent when speaking americanized english makes it really hard to understand. I never say a word about it because I don't want the other person to feel bad about it.
Not defending the HM here, but assuming best intent, he may have been commenting on the difference in dialects across English speaking countries. It is in fact true that each country and even regions within countries have different dialects and accents. The real question is why did this come up in a conversation? Were you talking about your personal history or your immigration story, or was it out of the blue? Also, the notion that one of the dialects is the "real English" is of course absurd, but it is hard to tell exactly what he said since it MIGHT be biased by your subjective interpretation.
Maybe it was my subjective interpretation but Indians and “real English” was definitely used in the same statement. The context was him giving his introduction and his experience working on a certain product.
It sounds like he was trying to describe real Murican English and wasn't aware that it came out a certain way.
assuming positive intent is a great way to let people walk all over you
Wow, terrible advice. Basically just shut up and know your place brownie!? Looks like there are racists at Amazon