Time magazine published an article online about Asian-Americans who own motels along historic Route 66.
The article mentions the Asian-Americans who brought back dignity to the Wigwam Motel in Rialto, Calif., and who continue to improve their properties, such as the Desert Hills Motel in Tulsa.
But then …
… [I]t’s a shame that the Patels and other innkeepers of South Asian descent have prompted a xenophobic — some might say racist — response from competitors along the U.S.’s historic highways.
As the Indian share of the market has grown over the years — members of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) now own 37% of the U.S. hotel industry — AMERICAN OWNED signs keep popping up outside motels around the country. While this seemingly innocuous phrase may appeal to many customers, it can also be intended as code for “not owned by immigrants,” an attempt to divert business from upstanding first- or second-generation citizens whose ethnicity distinguishes them from most of their small-town neighbors. […]
“[Innkeepers] are trying to prey on people’s prejudice under the guise of patriotism,” says AAHOA president Fred Schwartz. His group wages vigorous letter-writing campaigns urging motels to remove the phrase, which is found mostly outside independently owned motels because franchise agreements restrict what signs may say.
Fortunately, most Route 66ers are supportive of the Asian-Americans who own Route 66 motels. They realize these Asian-Americans are preserving many of the historic motels along the road. A few — like Manoj Patel of the aforementioned Wigwams in Rialto — have transformed their properties into icons of the road, and have received awards for their efforts.
Make sure you read to the end of the article. It’s quite a punchline — and it’s appropriate for the great melting pot that is America.
Art’s Restaurant & Motel in Farmersville IL was purchased by an east Indian man who said it had always been his dream to own a motel on route 66.
Personally, I don’t care WHO owns the motel as long as it is clean and well maintained.
I stopped by an old motel along old US 40 in Illinois recently that proudly proclaimed its American ownership. But the proprietor was clearly from India. Well, as a new American citizen, his motel was American owned without any doubt. Clearly the model for hyphenated Americans who own motels along 66.
Y’know, I’ve been thinking about this issue a lot, and I suddenly remembered something that happened a few years ago at an office where I worked.
I had a really annoying colleague who was really possessive about his stuff. He was so possessive about the new mouse he’d gotten that he took a red pen and colored in the little Apple logo on top of it to identify it as his.
One of our interns and I thought this was the silliest thing we’d ever seen, so we went around the room and colored in the logos on every single mouse in the department … and then swapped his mouse with one that didn’t work right, just for good measure. Of course he was completely unable to find his rightful mouse the next day, because they all looked exactly alike.
His labeling system only worked when it distinguished his mouse from the others. When all the others had the same label, it became totally meaningless and ceased to serve its intended purpose.
Maybe that’s something for AAHOA to consider….