Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Is it racist to not want to hire somebody because they smell like ethnic food?

GGG · 06-13-2012, 07:41 PM

I cleaned apartment buildings after people moved out one summer for work during highschool. One of the apartments reeked of curry. And when I say reeked I mean overpowering almost knock you out level. When cleaning the walls of the apartment yellow tar very similar to cleaning a smokers apartment was coming off the walls. I was in there for an hour and vomited and have to leave for a few hours. We let the place air out opening up the patio doors and all the windows for a few days and then came back. It was still nauseating but was tolerable. In the end all of the carpet needed to be ripped out and the entire place repainted. Even then I thought I could still smell trace amounts of it although it could have been just in my head at that point

So i understand the statement that the smell can make someone sick for an entire day and personally if the odor was bad i would not want to work around that person. But.. that doesn't mean it wasn't racially motivated. It could have been that he didn't smell bad and that was an excuse or it could have been legitimate. However not hiring based on odor I think is reasonable in severe cases.

(As a side note I really like curry so it isn't dislike of the food, just the concentrated smell)

06-13-2012, 07:41 PM	#91
GGG Franchise Player Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: California Exp:	I cleaned apartment buildings after people moved out one summer for work during highschool. One of the apartments reeked of curry. And when I say reeked I mean overpowering almost knock you out level. When cleaning the walls of the apartment yellow tar very similar to cleaning a smokers apartment was coming off the walls. I was in there for an hour and vomited and have to leave for a few hours. We let the place air out opening up the patio doors and all the windows for a few days and then came back. It was still nauseating but was tolerable. In the end all of the carpet needed to be ripped out and the entire place repainted. Even then I thought I could still smell trace amounts of it although it could have been just in my head at that point So i understand the statement that the smell can make someone sick for an entire day and personally if the odor was bad i would not want to work around that person. But.. that doesn't mean it wasn't racially motivated. It could have been that he didn't smell bad and that was an excuse or it could have been legitimate. However not hiring based on odor I think is reasonable in severe cases. (As a side note I really like curry so it isn't dislike of the food, just the concentrated smell)