Forums The Vibe Chat Discrimination

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  • #1041096
    Angel
    Moderator

      Have you ever been discriminated because of the way you look ?

      Found this article,but i’m not sure if it’s for real or just a joke :you_crazy

      Quote:
      Red hair, long hair and big earrings sported by cabbies in Beijing are being banned for the 2008 Olympics.

      A state-run newspaper has reported that taxi drivers have been given a 12-point list “for self-improvement”.
      Beijing News says the order comes from the city’s transport management bureau.

      The list includes the usual pleas to be polite and not to smoke, spit or overcharge – on top of the hair and jewellery tips for women.

      The male drivers are being told to keep their locks short.

      The bureau’s vice director Yao Kuo said: “Some drivers don’t care about their appearance and this has a negative impact on the whole industry.

      “A person’s hairstyle and accessories are their personal business, but cab drivers must remember they are a window for China’s capital,” he added.

      Drivers who do not use their meters or refuse to pick up passengers will lose their licences, the paper said.

      It did not say if there would be any penalties for red-haired drivers with earrings next year.

      Sky news http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91059-1261246,00.html

      #1103268
      Anonymous

        They should be banned on giving customers their opinions on this funny old world too, hehehe.

        #1103279
        Angel
        Moderator

          ……….. blah blah blah

          #1103278
          Sound-Guy
          Participant

            Thats not really discrimination, its the transport bureau’s vice director doing whats hes allowed to do. These factors are gonna be a MASSIVE impact on the industry when 1000’s of tourists enter china for the olympics, so in all fairness its like my boss telling me what to wear at work.(he does anyway)

            Discriminate: Make or see a distinction (Usually against) treat badly or well, esp on basis of race, gender ETC.

            A taxi driver Not pickin a man up because hes wearin nike trainers and a nike cap, thats discrimination!

            #1103269
            Anonymous

              I once got chucked out of a taxi for slamming the door too hard when l got in.

              #1103272
              General Lighting
              Moderator
                Quote:
                Thats not really discrimination, its the transport bureau’s vice director doing whats hes allowed to do. These factors are gonna be a MASSIVE impact on the industry when 1000’s of tourists enter china for the olympics, so in all fairness its like my boss telling me what to wear at work.(he does anyway)

                I think this is definitely more the case. The man is also trying to clamp down on corruption and bad customer service that plague taxi-cab services worldwide, I don’t really see anything wrong with this.

                Chinese youth today are allowed at least some semblance of self-expression so many now dress like punks/emos, and I suspect that any customer-facing firm worldwide would discourage their staff from adopting this sort of appearance in the workplace.

                #1103277
                Anonymous

                  i couldnt get a job for a year because i had longhair. as soon as i shaved it off i was offered numerous jobs. my ability to do the jobs had not increased, it was merely peoples prejudices that had kept me unemployed. you cant justify that surely? how does it matter what a cabbie looks like? its image fascism. people should be allowed to express themselves through teh way they dress. as the cheesy song goes…

                  if everybody looked the same, we’d get tired of looking at each other.

                  just because we are conditioned to conform, doesnt mean we should have to.

                  #1103270
                  Anonymous

                    Yeah man, it’s like different countries and different social statuses, the rich the poor the middle, etc.

                    Different countries make us curious about each other and our own identity. Different social statuses give us something to strive for (l hope l never end up exploiting people, l want to be rich, l want to be a simple poor man, l want to renounce my worldly possessions, l just want to be comfortable and cruise through life etc) and again, give us identity. Vive the difference!

                    #1103273
                    General Lighting
                    Moderator
                      USE wrote:
                      i couldnt get a job for a year because i had longhair. as soon as i shaved it off i was offered numerous jobs. my ability to do the jobs had not increased, it was merely peoples prejudices that had kept me unemployed. you cant justify that surely? how does it matter what a cabbie looks like? its image fascism. people should be allowed to express themselves through teh way they dress. as the cheesy song goes…

                      if everybody looked the same, we’d get tired of looking at each other.

                      just because we are conditioned to conform, doesnt mean we should have to.

                      the real test will be how much this is enforced, and I suspect the reporting from Sky is bit lazy – it seems rather more like a warning to smarten up rather than an outright “ban”, with the greater penalties being reserved for the worse offences which involve being unhygenic and/or being rude to /cheating customers.

                      It may seem strange but the very fact the taxi manager is giving this warning is a sign of how far China has actually progressed, there was a time not many years ago where all taxi drivers would have been in uniform, and people would have been nicked for just having Western fashion styles in the street!

                      I think we sometimes need to be careful of judging Eastern countries by current Western standards…their level of freedom of expression is still developing and I would say China is now where Britain was in about 1979-1981….

                      I personally don’t think its a problem if a Chinese cabbie looks like an emo (TBH there would be comedy value there, particularly if you have actually seen a Chinese emo :laugh_at:) and if they were that strange-looking people would be too frightened to get in their cab anyway, so the problem would essentially self-regulate itself.

                      I do think however that staff should be pulled up for being unhygenic, gving bad service or cheating customers.

                      The problem here is with the manager lumping in the dress code with the other customer service issues; perhaps he should look to current Western practice where there is less emphasis on formal dress styles even in business.

                      #1103271
                      Anonymous

                        oh yeah Emos, they live in a twilit world of crusty tampons, glue sniffing, spliffs and self-harm, and they aren’t old enough to drive cabs. They’d keep their gobs shut when driving though eh.

                        #1103274
                        General Lighting
                        Moderator

                          The other issue about USE not being able to get a job because of his hairstyle (which has happened to lots of people I know) is unfortunately the dilemma of the discrimination caused by “Western -style freedom, capitalism and free markets”.

                          We have some freedom of expression compared to many other parts of the world, but at the same time businesspeople also have an amount of freedom to choose whom they do business with (such as purchasing or awarding employment).

                          There aren’t any “guaranteed” jobs such as you would get in socialist countries with large public sectors, and customers also have a lot of power to shape the way a business treats their staff.

                          There are unfortunately too many people who want to see staff “well dressed and in uniform” and some even make it part of their purchasing decision :you_crazy (other than hygiene I don’t see the issue…)

                          I do find that a lot of smaller business do blatantly discriminate whenever they can (including racial/sexual discrimination) and only do business with people they like. Even many specialist shops such as record shops used to do this, often cherry picking their customers – I think thats why a lot of these places go bust.

                          The only thing that will change it is for businesses to lose in the marketplace because they are discriminating against otherwise good people on grounds of appearance (this may have been a driver for how the IT industry was less harsh on dress codes in the dot-com days).

                          #1103276
                          globalloon
                          Participant
                            USE wrote:
                            i couldnt get a job for a year because i had longhair. as soon as i shaved it off i was offered numerous jobs. my ability to do the jobs had not increased, it was merely peoples prejudices that had kept me unemployed. you cant justify that surely? how does it matter what a cabbie looks like? its image fascism. people should be allowed to express themselves through teh way they dress. as the cheesy song goes…

                            if everybody looked the same, we’d get tired of looking at each other.

                            just because we are conditioned to conform, doesnt mean we should have to.

                            the twats

                            the last person i employed has full body tats, came to the interview wearing paint covered army boots, ripped trousers and a t-shirt, but he had the skills, so i wanted him working for me. we had a visit from some fairly senior political people today and he turned up wearing an old t shirt with the sleeves ripped off, but because he achieves results, reaching people that suits can’t even talk to, they offered us a 5 figure sum on the spot

                            raaa

                            #1103275
                            General Lighting
                            Moderator
                              globalloon wrote:
                              the twats

                              the last person i employed has full body tats, came to the interview wearing paint covered army boots, ripped trousers and a t-shirt, but he had the skills, so i wanted him working for me. we had a visit from some fairly senior political people today and he turned up wearing an old t shirt with the sleeves ripped off, but because he achieves results, reaching people that suits can’t even talk to, they offered us a 5 figure sum on the spot

                              raaa

                              I’ve not worn a tie for work for many years now, yet an now in a higher managment position than i was previously – although a lot of it is due to delivering results.

                              There was a trend of more liberal dress codes for a bit, particularly during the dot-com days

                              In one IT job I was told at interview that “the only dress code here is that you should normally wear clothes” :laugh_at:

                              Some industries have got a bit harsher but I think Britain’s managers often do themselves a disservice by rejecting people from jobs merely because they don’t “look right”, although the problem is they feel there are “more than enough candidates”.

                              Sometimes there is a need for certain workwear for health/safety – and people at work should at least look clean, but I really can’t see the point of a lot of corporate dress codes. The problem is that too many other people do :you_crazy

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