The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

Evon Reid, who was called the “Ghetto Dude” in a mis-forwarded email from the Ontario government. Photo taken from his Facebook page.

It’s insult added to injury: not only did poor Evon Reid find out that he wasn’t accepted for a job by way of an accidental email forwarding, he was referred to in the email as a “ghetto dude”.

“This is the ghetto dude that I spoke to before,” said the email written by Aileen Siu, who works in the Ontario government cabinet office as an acting team leader in cabinet office hiring, which was meant to be forwarded to a job-search colleague.

There’s a mish-mash of issues brought up by this gaffe, including:

• Race: Reid is black, but there’s some question as to whether or not Siu knew that. In the Toronto Star article, Reid did indicate that the office spoke to his mother, who has a Jamaican accent. Siu pointed out that she’s Asian and implied that she understands racial discrimination. Of course, not being white doesn’t give you immunity from being a racist, in spite of what the loonier elements from the left will tell you. Kudos to Reid for handling this issue well: in a follow-up article in the Star, he said “”This isn’t a Confederate flag in a pickup truck. But it’s the kind of private view that affects decisions about someone like myself in the job market.”
• Class: I’ve seen the term “ghetto” used as an adjective by people from all races and all walks of life to refer to something that’s cheap, crass or tacky: “He shortchanged us when the bill came around! That’s so ghetto!” Reid’s from Malvern, a part of the large east-end Accordion City suburb called Scarborough (which often gets tagged with derisive names such as “Scarberia“, “Scarlem”, or the one that made me laugh out loud the first time I heard it, “Scompton”). Malvern has a rep, and Reid pointed this out when he said that it’s got one of the highest levels of youth unemployment in Canada.
• Qualifications: Reid’s credentials, from what was written in the Star article, are pretty good for someone who’s not quite out of university yet. They include a summer course in international management strategies at the University of Hong Kong, some solid projects in his courses, a good resume and a glowing letter from a former employer. It’s a crying shame that he wants to work for the government.
• Using office email wisely: First, there’s the obvious issue of double-checking the list of people in the “to:” and “cc:” fields of your email — we’ve all heard stories about people who’ve forwarded mail to the wrong people. But less obvious is the fact we live in the post Sarbanes-Oxley age, which means that every last little email you send using your employer’s email system is logged somewhere. The bottom line is that you should write email on the company email system as if someone at a law firm will be going over it with a fine-toothed comb someday.
• Multi-tasking: Siu said that she was multi-tasking when she made the mistake. Let this be a lesson to those of you who still think you’re being productive when you multi-task.

Related Reading

• Toronto Star: U of T Student to Get Apology for Email
• Torontoist: Queen’s Park Media Analysts are So Ghetto
• CTV: Tory Slams Liberals After “Accidental” Email Slur
• Udo Schuklenk’s Ethx Blog: Racism alive and kicking – why every ethnic group is capable of being racist