Syd Agency Sorry For Telling Interviewee They “Already Had 2 Brown People”

Bloody hell. It’s getting a bit exhausting keeping up with the racist incidents in this country, no?

Today’s yarn: Sydney creative agency Banjo has been forced to publicly apologise after a post from a Sri Lankan woman who’d interviewed their went viral.

Surungi Emily Hohol
wrote on Facebook that she was “livid and seriously irritated” after being told by the person interviewing her at Banjo that she “wouldn’t be suitable for the role as they already had two other Indian people” working at the agency.

“The client might be alarmed by having three brown skin people attend a meeting’,” she wrote, quoting directly from the interviewer.

(h/t Mumbrella.)

Her post went viral, b/c of course it did. The sheer stupidity of that comment beggars belief.

So after it started picking up attention, Banjo realised what had happened and issued “an unreserved apology” that manages to stray very close to the point while missing it altogether.
Essentially, it called the comment a “misunderstanding” over “a casual remark at the end of the interview, which was intended to set the person at ease”. Because there’s nothing better for the ol’ interview nerves like casually joking about the colour of your skin, no?

“The senior staff member who conducted what was a very positive interview, made a casual remark at the end of the interview, which was intended to set the person at ease,” it said.

“Unfortunately it was taken out of context and has since gained some notoriety on social media. Needless to say, the Banjo staff member is deeply upset by the incident, which occurred yesterday. There has been a lot of media attention on the issue of equality – including race, gender and sexual orientation, and age – in recent times and we acknowledge that emotions can run high.”

Damn those emotions! Damn them all to hell.

Banjo’s Managing Director Andrew Varasdi even wrote that upon hearing about the post, he immediately contacted both Hohol and his staff member to offer his empathy and support.

“The feedback I received was that the interview was a very positive one, reflected in an email sent immediately to the recruitment company that was complimentary of the candidate, and addressed the possibility to explore further opportunities with Banjo,” he said.

“Our position on this remains unchanged. When I learned of the situation I immediately contacted both the candidate and our staff member to offer my empathy and support. I have arranged to meet with the candidate first thing in the morning (Friday 5 August) to reassure her of our policies on recruitment.”

The apology – which you can read in full here – manages to simultaneously applaud itself on its diverse staff while failing to address the actual crux of the issue: that ‘joking’ about a person’s skin colour is completely inappropriate (good intentions or no). And as far as suggesting that a client would feel awkward about doing business with “three brown people” goes, that’s just another depressingly common example of covert racism.

A misunderstanding? Okay mate.

Source: Mumbrella.
Photo: Facebook / Surungi Emily Hohol.

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