I'm hoping to see some decent discussion on this, as I see both sides having a point. Please read before voting. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33479833/ns/us_news-race_and_ethnicity?GT1=43001 TAOS, N.M. - Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel. The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence (he thought they'd be talking about him), and ordered some to Anglicize their names. No more Martin (Mahr-TEEN). It was plain-old Martin. No more Marcos. Now it would be Mark. Story continues below ↓ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- advertisement | your ad here -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whitten's management style had worked for him as he's turned around other distressed hotels he bought in recent years across the country. The 63-year-old Texan, however, wasn't prepared for what followed. His rules and his firing of several Hispanic employees angered his employees and many in this liberal enclave of 5,000 residents at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, where the most alternative of lifestyles can find a home and where Spanish language, culture and traditions have a long and revered history. "I came into this landmine of Anglos versus Spanish versus Mexicans versus Indians versus everybody up here. I'm just doing what I've always done," he says. Former workers, their relatives and some town residents picketed across the street from the hotel. "I do feel he's a racist, but he's a racist out of ignorance. He doesn't know that what he's doing is wrong," says protester Juanito Burns Jr., who identified himself as prime minister of an activist group called Los Brown Berets de Nuevo Mexico. New owner comes in The Virginia-born Whitten had spent 40 years in the hotel business, turning around more than 20 hotels in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and South Carolina, before moving with his wife to Taos from Abilene, Texas. He had visited Taos before, and liked its beauty. When Whitten saw that the Paragon Inn was up for sale, he jumped at it. The hotel sits along narrow, two-lane Paseo del Pueblo, where souped-up lowriders radiate a just-waxed gleam in the soft sunshine as they cruise past centuries-old adobe buildings. One recent afternoon, a woman slowly rode her fat-tire bicycle along a cracked sidewalk, oversized purple butterfly wings on her back and a breeze blowing her long, blonde dreadlocks. The community includes Taos Pueblo, an American Indian dwelling inhabited for over 1,000 years, and an adobe Catholic church made famous in a Georgia O'Keeffe painting. After he arrived, Whitten met with the employees. He says he immediately noticed that they were hostile to his management style and worried they might start talking about him in Spanish. "Because of that, I asked the people in my presence to speak only English because I do not understand Spanish," Whitten says. "I've been working 24 years in Texas and we have a lot of Spanish people there. I've never had to ask anyone to speak only English in front of me because I've never had a reason to." Some employees were fired, Whitten says, because they were hostile and insubordinate. He says they called him "a white (N-word)." Click for related content Vote: Should employees be forced to change names? 'I'm professional the way I am' Fired hotel manager Kathy Archuleta says the workers initially tried to adjust to his style. "We had already gone through four or five owners before him, so we knew what to expect," Archuleta says. "I told (the workers) we needed to give him a chance." Then Whitten told some employees he was changing their Spanish first names. Whitten says it's a routine practice at his hotels to change first names of employees who work the front desk phones or deal directly with guests if their names are difficult to understand or pronounce. "It has nothing to do with racism. I'm not doing it for any reason other than for the satisfaction of my guests, because people calling from all over America don't know the Spanish accents or the Spanish culture or Spanish anything," Whitten says. Martin Gutierrez, another fired employee, says he felt disrespected when he was told to use the unaccented Martin as his name. He says he told Whitten that Spanish was spoken in New Mexico before English. "He told me he didn't care what I thought because this was his business," Gutierrez says. "I don't have to change my name and language or heritage," he says. "I'm professional the way I am." 'Over the top' After the firings, the New Mexico chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a national civil rights group, sent Whitten a letter, raising concerns about treatment of Hispanic workers. Whitten says he sent them a letter and posted messages on the hotel marquee, alleging that the group referred to him with a racial slur. LULAC denied the charge. The messages and comments he made in interviews with local media, including referring to townsfolk as "mountain people" and "potheads who escaped society," further enflamed tensions. Taos Mayor Darren Cordova says Whitten wasn't doing anything illegal. But he says Whitten failed to better familiarize himself with the town and its culture before deciding to buy the hotel for $2 million. "Taos is so unique that you would not do anything in Taos that you would do elsewhere," he says. Whitten grew subdued as a two-hour interview with The Associated Press progressed. He said he was sorry for the misunderstanding and insisted he has never been against any culture. "What kind of fool or idiot or poor businessman would I be to orchestrate this whole crazy thing that's costed me a lot of time, money and aggravation?" Whitten said. Whitten should have dealt with the situation differently, especially in a majority Hispanic town, said 71-year-old Taos artist Ken O'Neil, while sipping his afternoon coffee on the town's historic plaza. "To make demands like he did just seems over the top," he says. "Nobody won here. It's not always about winning. Sometimes, it's about what you learn."
The requirement of English didn't bother me. The name changing did, but Indian/Chinese phone support that have 'American' names doesn't bother me. I actually find the support names to be amusing. Maybe I'm racist. But, I'll go with racist, for changing names against their wishes.
He may or may not be a racist, but his business practices (behavior) would place him perilously close enough to paint him as such. My guess is that he probably has had less than 15 employees in the hotels that he "turned around."
Gotta agree here, he crossed the line with the name change. Its his business so if he requests English be spoken, so be it. But changing someone's name, even to a slightly different pronunciation is a bit much.
I don't know if it was racism or not. But it certainly wasn't good business. If anything, it was terrible business to not have any real knowledge about the hotel he was buying or the community it was in. It's also terrible business to piss off all your employees.
He anticipated his guests couldn't relate to 'Marcos?' He referred to the townsfolk as potheads and mountain people to the local media in a small town? How is this good business? Was the hotel successful?
he is clearly a jackass, but i dont know if you can call him a racist. i am willing to allow the free market to make that determination.
I guess it must be racism, because it's not good business. He may have torpedoed his investment with this flap.
I think it's real easy to yell "racist!" and then go dine in a nice hotel. I'm not sure what impact these changes made with previous hotels, but the fact was he goes in and they're making a profit. Clearly what he was doing was bringing in folks who weren't going there before. I think it has a lot to say about society as well.
That's racist, yo! If he were hiring Russians or Pakistanis or someone else whose names might be difficult for English speakers, he might have an argument that it's really about customer service. But Marcos? Almost every American outside knows someone with that name.
Yep. Requiring them to speak english in his presence is no problem, and should be the standard normal for American businesses. However, requiring them to say their name in a more American fashion is absolutely ridiculous and racist.
From the little bit of info we have here (including his quotes) it doesn't seem like it's working in this town, does it, gordito?
I think in other parts of the States it is more common to feel that employees speaking a foreign language are probably talking about you (as a customer or manager) and that it is impolite to communicate in a way others can't understand. For that reason having an "English only" policy is a way of improving customer satisfaction. But in Texas people are used to hearing Spanish even if they don't understand it. And I don't think people assume you don't understand them so it isn't always rude. While I can't say I've ever heard anyone speak anything but English in front of guests at five star hotels, it wouldn't necessarily knock it down a star, certainly not here. Overall it seems that there is a regional culture clash going on here.
There should be a 3rd option- Bad business. The implication in the thread title is odd. That racism is somehow good business.
