American Stereotypes

I live in NYC. Our city-dwellers are stereotyped in various negative ways. Once, 15 years ago, I had an afternoon free and I was sitting on a bench in Union Square park, near the Gandhi statue. A young man from Bangladesh in his early 20s was sitting at the other end of the bench, smoking. We began to talk and he mentioned that he needed a job in a restaurant. I said, "well, you come with me and lets find one." I knew all the Muslim owned stores in the area, plus a large Bangladeshi Masjid on 1st Ave, and then all the Bangladeshi run India restaurants on that entire street a few blocks south. We stopped in each place, including the Masjid, and I introduce him and said "do you know of a job for your brother Muslim here." The imam was astounded when he saw what I was doing. We went to each restaurant on that street and asked. Suddenly the young man said he had to leave. I asked at the very next restaurant and they said "yes we are looking for a bus-boy", but the phone number which the young man had given me did not work.