January 01, 2006

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A Reader Thinks Tancredo is Wrong; Joe Says So What

A Displaced American Quant Reflects On The “Stupid Americans”

From:  [Name Withheld]

Re: Edwin S. Rubenstein’s Column: “The Stupid American? Look Again”

Mr. Rubenstein’s work is refreshing in its intelligence and candor.

As a native-born, white American, I've experienced anti-white, anti-American bias in the workplace.

On Wall Street, I worked in derivatives and IT areas, and on several occasions, Indian nationals (who are aggressively recruited into quant/tech departments) openly doubted my skills.

On the first occasion, I scored within the top three of twenty students on a derivatives finance exam. A British instructor graded my exam and the Indian, so convinced I was stupid, did not believe the score and demanded the chance to grade it himself. He finally agreed I had earned the score.

On another occasion, Chinese and Indian national computer programmers, who had made mathematical mistakes in their code, did not believe my QA corrections at first, but I was later proven correct.

I was a minority in the latter setting, even though it was an American office. I was terminated two weeks before my 401k vested. When one sympathetic manager observed the hostile way I was treated by another manager, he said flatly, "But it's not as if you can claim discrimination."

After my termination, I was unable to even get an interview, let alone a consulting contract. I recently had my resume on Monster.com and did not receive a single inquiry.

Yet I have an MBA/MA from The Lauder Institute which Time magazine once said that each class comprised the 50 most elite MBAs in the country), learned complex derivatives inside-out, added IT skills on top of that, and speak fluent Mandarin.

Three years ago, I earned almost $200,000. This year I earned $24,000 gross.

To say this is not fair is to understate the point.