Her Vietnamese Dad Wanted a Job, But Was Humiliated By HR For His English
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with a reply from the owner of the company who sent the offensive email.
Earlier today, Seattle resident Emily Huynh tweeted out a rather concerning email her father received from a prospective employer.
The email came from Bruce Peterson, who is the HR Manager/Hiring Manager for Dash Delivery LLC, located in Everette, Washington. Huynh’s tweets have gone viral with a flood of tweets in support of Huynh and her father.
“I honestly feel like Dash Delivery should be way more professional,” Huynh told NextShark.
While there’s obviously a huge problem with Peterson’s email, Huynh’s father, wasn’t too fazed by it, but Huynh pointed out a bigger problem.
“My dad told me that he isn’t that ‘hurt’ by it, but there’s a big stigma around Asian immigrant parents that deal with this all the time. They brush it off because they don’t understand the depth of the situation. People always use micro aggressions with or without knowing they do which is a big concern when it comes to the treatment of future citizens. I’m just disgusted,” Huynh said.
Some users even pointed out the possible legal ramifications Dash Deliver LLC could face because of Peterson’s email.
Huynh’s dad, Minh Huynh, immigrated to America in 1995. He owned a restaurant when Huynh was young, but it didn’t work out. From there, he worked as an overnight truck driver for 13 years and was even awarded as the company’s safest driver. Unfortunately, he was laid off for not being able to get a certain license on time.
“For the past 2 years he has been jobless and has been doing odd part-time jobs. He is having a way harder time finding a job, he’s been on his laptop day and night trying to email people while using Google translate. He always asks me and my brother for help but we’re not home most of time because of school.”
The family lives in a low-income neighborhood in Seattle. Her father is from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam while her mom is from Taishan, China.
“They have been struggling ever since they got here,” she said. “Some say that once you get to America, you’re golden, but a lot of immigrants struggle in America as much as they struggled in their homeland.”
Many Asian Americans are usually thought of as financially successful because of the “model minority”. However, Huynh’s story shines a light on a huge issue that’s rarely talked about in the community.
Sharon Chang of Think Progress highlighted:
“Asian Americans also represent one of the highest rates of senior poverty of any racial/ethnic group. ‘Health insurance is very expensive, living standards are very expensive,’ said Gary Tang, Director of Aging and Adult Services at Asian Counseling and Referral Service. ‘Even if [Asian elders] have savings from their home culture, it’s impossible to save enough to prepare for your ‘golden years’ in the U.S.’
“Even when Asian elders were educated in their home countries, their professional skills are often not recognized in the U.S. and their lack of English language proficiency makes it very difficult to hold a job. Thus they experience high unemployment and extreme social isolation. Tang said 2014 racial disparity data on older adults (65+) living in King County, Washington, showed 19 percent of older Asian Americans live in poverty, just a sliver behind the 19.5 percent of older African Americans. Meanwhile, a much lower 6.7 percent of older whites were living in poverty even though they represented 82 percent of the total King County senior population.”
NextShark reached out to the number in Peterson’s email signature and found a representative for Alpha Courier. We were told that Peterson doesn’t work for Alpha Courier anymore, but works for Dash Delivery LLC. Although they are two separate companies, we were told that they share the same office space and are owned by the same person, Kevin Bus.
We have been told that we will receive a written statement by 4:00 p.m. PST today from the company. We will update accordingly.
(UPDATE: 1/23/18 4:30 p.m. PST): Dash Delivery LLC has failed to send us a statement by their stated time. We will update when we have more information.)
(UPDATE: 1/23/18 8:40 p.m. PST): Dash Delivery LLC owner Kevin Bus has responded with an apology to the Huynh family adding that the offensive hiring manager, Bruce Peterson, has been fired.
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