LOCAL UTILITY COMPANY CIRCULATES ANTI-HISPANIC QUESTIONNAIRE

The Tennessee-based utility company, Memphis Light, Gas and Water, has been forced to apologize for a customer service survey that many are calling racist.  The survey, which was sent to utility employees and prominent local residents, asked questions about Hispanics which a utility employee claimed were designed to learn more about the city’s growing Hispanic population. 

Among the survey questions were these:  Do Hispanics run up bills and not wish to pay?  Do Hispanics park illegally in handicap parking spaces?  Are Hispanics sometimes squatters?  The employee who wrote the survey reacted with surprise to Hispanic’s reaction, saying “I’ve been burned.  This was something I did to try to help Hispanics, but they viewed it as something different.” 

Officials from the utility company say the employee who wrote the survey was new to the company and not familiar with their policies.  Memphis Light, Gas and Water says it is working on ways to provide better services to Hispanics, and to increase the number of Hispanics it employs.

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