When Discrimination Hits Home | Frustrated Arab

22.4.12

When Discrimination Hits Home | Frustrated Arab:
After my father, Hussein ‘Joseph’ Chamseddine, lead plaintiff in the discrimination suit against IHOP, spoke at a press conference on April 18 both local and international media networks were engrossed with the case; from Good Morning America, The Daily Mail (UK), The Huffington Post, CBS, to FOX, NBC and the New York Post. My father had worked for IHOP some 12 years; he began as an assistant manager working tiring night-shifts, moving up along the ladder towards his final position as a district manager overseeing 4 stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, even being asked by IHOP to make two trips to Ohio in order to train IHOP managers in that district. I recall trips my younger siblings and I would make with my father, assisting him with lifting heavy boxes, files et al. He would take it upon himself to stay up late in the evening so he may resolve all assigned work, and often those unassigned, beyond even satisfactory achievement. The walls of our home are decorated with awards and certificates he has received from IHOP: Best Manager, Best Sales, Certificate of “above and beyond achievement” etc. Despite my fathers commendable history at IHOP he is one of four men who were fired for being Arab and Muslim in 2010, nearly two years ago.