My Filipino accent cost me a promotion

wine? How does this happen?

atty. C. Joe sayas, JR

Recently, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a document, The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church, to promote our belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist in light of the latest Pew research that only one-third of Catholics nowadays believe in this doctrine of our faith. Here is an excerpt from the beginning of the document: Recalling these words of Jesus, the Catholic Church professes that, in the celebration of the Eucharist, bread, and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the instrumentality of the priest. Jesus said: “I am the living bread that came down

This presence of Christ in the Eucharist is called “real,” not to exclude other types of his presence as if they could not be understood as real (cf. Catechism, no. 1374). The risen Christ is present in his Church in many ways, but most especially through the sacrament of his Body and Blood.

What does it mean that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist under the appearance of bread and

The presence of the risen Christ in the Eucharist is an inexhaustible mystery that the Church can never fully explain in words. We must remember that the triune God is the creator of all that exists and has the power to do more than we can possibly imagine. As St. Ambrose said: “If the word of the Lord Jesus is so powerful as to bring into existence things which were not, then a fortiori those things which already exist can be changed into something else” (De Sacramentis, IV, 5-16). God created the world in order to share his life with persons who are not God. This great plan of salvation reveals a wisdom that surpasses our understanding. But we are not left in ignorance: for out of his love for us, God reveals his truth to us in ways that we can understand through the gift of faith and the grace of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. We are thus enabled to understand at least in some measure what would otherwise remain unknown to us, though we can never completely comprehend the mystery of God.

Let’s pray that we stay firm in holding to this belief in the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist!

* * *

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.

* * * Fr. Rodel “Odey” Balagtas is the pastor of Incarnation Church in Glendale, California.

Q: I AM a college graduate in business management from the Philippines who migrated to the United States. I got work as a caregiver at a nursing facility. After a few years, I was promoted to a supervisor position: still providing direct care but also overseeing other caregivers. The patients and my co workers like me, so I enjoy the work.

Recently, I learned that the facility was hiring for a manager position. The job wouldn’t involve providing direct care to patients, but would instead be on the business side. My college degree in business management, and the fact that the job description shows that knowledge of our organization’s caregiving operations would be an important part of the job, appears to make me qualified for the position. I showed the job opening to one of the managers at the facility, and she agreed that I seemed qualified for the job opening, so I applied.

When I went for the job interview, the person who interviewed me was from corporate. I had never seen him before in the facility. He was friendly, but it seemed weird when he said he was surprised to see that I was Filipino because I use my husband’s English last name. We talked about the job and I did my best to show him that I was qualified.

He told me that he was impressed by my interview, but that he had concerns about my accent. He said that the manager position involves a lot of interactions with patients’ families, and that because the facility is in a predominantly white community, the clients might not be able to understand my accent. He said that, from past experience, the

Is that legal?

clients in this community like

Filipino caregivers but not Filipino managers. He said he has nothing against me and other Filipinos, but that the company has to respect the clients’ feelings.

I didn’t get the job. The company hired a white woman for the manager position. She seems nice, but she doesn’t even know what we do here. And when I spoke to her, I found out that she is much less qualified than me.

I feel like my accent cost me the job. Isn’t that illegal?

A: What you experienced likely violated the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which make it an unlawful employment practice to refuse to hire, employ or promote someone because of that person’s race, national origin or ancestry, among other classifications.

The courts have made clear that basing hiring or promotion decisions on a person’s accent may support a finding of employment discrimination on account of race, national origin or ancestry. That would appear to be what happened in your situation, where your interviewer specifically noted your accent in the interview as a reason not to hire you, and then the company hired a less-qualified person of a different race, national origin and ancestry. It’s curious that the interviewer specifically noted that he personally does not harbor ill feelings towards Filipinos, and that it is the customers who are instead prejudiced against Filipinos. But this does not excuse the discriminatory conduct. While the discrimination laws make