When I was in my twenties, I was job-hunting.
An employment agency sent me for an interview at a shoe factory in downtown Montreal that needed a receptionist. I didn't really want that job, but I needed work. So I went to the interview and put forward my best effort.
The employer asked my religion. Back then it was not illegal to do so in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
As soon as he heard that I was a Jew, he told me he could not hire me. How did he justify that?
He said that, as Jew, I would require Saturdays off and the shoe factory operated six days a week.
I told the man that I was not Orthodox and I would work on Saturdays.
But he insisted that, as a Jew, I had the right to Saturdays off and he would not infringe on that right.
And so I tell you who may feel pain when bigotry is inflicted, there may be an upside to it.
I can just imagine my life if I had been granted that job. A life working in a hot, dirty, smelly shoe factory. Whew! Was I ever lucky to meet that bigot.
Phyllis Carter
Professional journalist, private investigator, singer, English Speech Consultant, and now, blogger with more than 137,000 readers around the world.
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