Perry E. Metzger said the following on 18/06/2008 23:45:
Maybe one day we will get over that fixation.
Perhaps a bit after people in New York get over that fixation, but we
Indian companies in the Middle East use this to their advantage. There
are a bunch of (mostly Brit) aging expats who have invested in good
suits, and are hired to take along to meetings.
Having an expat (for some reason, South Asians in the UAE are not
expats, only whites are) with you opens doors very quickly, so instead
of, for example, cooling your heels in reception, you'd be ushered into
the conference room.
They are called "token whites", so you have people calling up and
saying, "Be sure to bring your token white along". You even have token
whites identifying themselves as such. I once struck up a conversation
with someone at a trade show, and he suggested that I speak to his
Korean colleague because he was just a token white.
Ram
