My response to this week @Ladiesofhive - Contest - Ladies of Hive Community Contest #144
You can write on any of these topics:
- Intimate partner violence
- Economic injustice and the pay gap
- Women's representation in leadership
- Racial injustice
- LGBTQ+ rights
πΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈ
All of these topics I do have some views, but I will like to emphasize on one of them more since I feel it sometimes happens with me.
Racial injustice - During my travels, specially to the western countries, there are times when I do face this problem and I am not the one who will stay quiet about it.
This incident happened with me last year when we travelled to Italy. In Venice we had booked a hotel stay for 3 people. I had done the booking via the booking.com portal and selected a good room. Confirmation was received and all was good. When we reached the hotel, the Manager informed us that the hotel was full and there were no rooms available for 3 people, so he offered us 1 room in another building which was 2 blocks away. The room was on the 2nd floor and the building did not have a lift. We were on a 3 weeks holiday so we had big bags with us. On checking with the manager if they had any help with the bags, he mentioned No. So, he expected us to carry the bags 2 floors up. My husband was recently out of a very big surgery that time so it was impossible for us to do that.
During all these conversations with the hotel guy, an American family came over, they were also 3 of them. The Manager gave them the room for 3 people. I was shocked and I questioned him. He mentioned to me that they had booked in advance. Then I got very furious, we had also booked in advance and we had their confirmation so did that not mean anything against their confirmation. He got baffled then and he said, he was sorry but he already gave up the room now so he could not help us. Then he offered us 1 another room in the same building mentioning it was a smaller room. We agreed to it, because we did not have much of choice.
When we checked that room, it was not a room, it was like a store room converted to a sleeping room in case of emergencies. I was totally pissed off with all of this. That evening when we again returned back to the hotel after our day outing there were many people at the desk and at that time only, I blasted the Manager that he was doing racial discrimination against us and that we will complaint and bring his hotel down from the booking.com website. Probably he did not expect this coming from me. He requested us that we accommodate for that night and the next morning he will give us a proper room.
The next morning, he kept his word and then gave us the room that we had actually booked, which was a very nice comfortable big room for 3 people and above all a proper hotel room.
This is one instance, but couple of times I have faced this in western countries where first preference is given to the westerners and then the Indians. I never shy off to open my mouth in such times and let the person know that he or she is doing wrong. It is not only in the western countries, even in my own country this happens. The locals give more preference to white skin then their own people, because they believe that they will earn more from them.
These injustices in our society are created by us only by giving preferences to what looks good and appealing to us. If we do not voice it, we will always have to suffer with it. To overcome any type of social injustice we need to voice it only then can we bring any type of reformation in the society. If we do not, then it is expected that we have accepted it and we are fine with it.
Thank you for visiting my blog. πΌπ»πΌπ»πππΉπΊπΈ