Casual racism in job posting

[Priscilla O]

**edited for Community Guidelines**

[Will L · Accepted solution]

Every one should be judged solely by the quality of their work, which has nothing to do with national origin, race, gender, etc., etc.

I expect you'll see that job posting removed by Upwork soon.

[Priscilla O]

Exactly Will! The irony being that there are millions of naturalized US citizens who happen to be born on the African continent. So basically that client excludes them as well.

[Nichola L]

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Will L wrote:

Every one should be judged solely by the quality of their work, which has nothing to do with national origin, race, gender, etc., etc.

I expect you'll see that job posting removed by Upwork soon.

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I don't think it will be. This subject has been addressed before. Upwork allows clients to specify countries. As is amply demonstrated by the geoblocking strategies already in place. 

[Nichola L]

Priscilla,

I think it is probably less racially prejudiced than language prejudice - or assumption - that Africans (whatever their colour) will not be up to proofreading American English. I have several times been turned down for a proofreading job because I am not native US.

The other problem is that some people from African and Asian countries make life very difficult for genuine freelancers (whose English is perfect) from those countries because they falsify their profiles and skills. (I had someone not so long ago from Madagascar steal my profile - everything on it - who was 18 years old, whose language skills were basic, and who was bidding on the same jobs as me. He was young enough to be my grandson!) It's this sort of person that gives others a bad name!  

It is certainly possible that there is a racist undertone, but I genuinely believe it is more because some clients may have been conned by people who should not be on this site.  

[Petra R]

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Nichola L wrote:

I think it is probably less racially prejudiced than language prejudice - or assumption - that Africans (whatever their colour) will not be up to proofreading American English. I have several times been turned down for a proofreading job because I am not native US.

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I can almost invariably pick up if something was written by a British writer, an American writer or a writer from Nigeria or Kenya.

It is not the same English. It sounds and feels different. Different style. Sometimes a little, sometimes dramatically.

Maybe Upwork will remove the posting, but frankly I think it is better that applicants know not to waste their connects on a certain job post when they will not be selected anyway and their proposal nt even opened because they do not fit the client's preferred profile.

[Priscilla O]

Also Petra , it is definitely much more complex than that in reality. You have millions of people of African or Asian descent who lived in Europe or the  US all of their lives and speak the language fluently and write it perfectly. The same applies to Europeans who settled in Caribbean countries and speak the patois fluently.

[Petra R]

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Priscilla O wrote:

Also Petra , it is definitely much more complex than that in reality.

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Everything is.

I am a native German speaker and lived in the UK for well over 20 years.

Yet I get excluded because I now live in Italy (weather and food better, people nicer) and clients want freelancers in Germany or the UK.

Just the way it goes, I just move on to the next one.

Clients have every right to choose. I have every right to apply anyway and see if I can change their mind.

If I can't, living next to an olive grove with my own tangerines in the garden makes it worthwhile

That said, the client themself is not a native English speaker by any stretch of the imagination either and that job post contains so many red flags that the location-specification is barely the tip of the iceberg.

[Heather H]

I think that the posting was not properly worded and it came off as racist but that is not the intent. I have posted may project seeking Native English speakers only to be flooded with applications from freelancers from Africa. It has nothing to do with the skin color and everything to do with targeting applicants that have been requested. 

It gets pretty annoying very quickly to be forced to keep reposting the same project just to keep getting the same people you are NOT seeking. 

[Priscilla O]

All this client had to say was that he was looking for US English native speakers. There are native US speakers who happen to be born on the African continent. What are they supposed to do when they see a post like this one?