Calling All Stereotypes

Emmanuel Sigauke, my friend and colleague, has recently won first prize in the Arts Initiates/Lion Press Award (UK) for his short story entitled "Call Center." According to the Arts Initiates website, the stories selected will be published in a forthcoming anthology of short stories.

The action in "Call Center" focuses on Tari, a call center employee and his antagonist, Mr. Johnston, a customer on the other end of the telephone line. Perhaps the most striking element is the tension between Tari and Mr. Johnston. Although strangers, their relationship is full of animosity, stereotype and ennuendo. On the one hand Mr. Johnston assumes that Tari, the call center employee, is from India, when, in fact, Tari is from Zimbabwe and living in California. This assumption leads to a series of questions and responses which only serve to heighten the tension and foster the misunderstanding between the two characters. Indeed, the title for the story seems to be more about calling out stereotypes than calling in for customer service. This is best exemplified when Mr. Johnston claims "All we know here in America is that your guys there are taking our jobs, and you can't even speak proper fucking English!" Of course, outsourcing is as much of a concern to employees in California as it is to customers across the United States, but Mr. Johnston appears to be the embodiment of nativist sentiment in our society today: anyone with an accent must be Other, who is the enemy to be distrusted.

On the other hand, Tari, the narrator, reveals to the reader his honest thoughts about Mr. Johnston: "What a loser, I thought, as I got ready to grill him. The fact that he thought I was in India already made me feel like I had more power than he had in this situation." The call center, then, becomes a metaphor for power struggles in the 21st century. In Tari's mind, Mr. Johnston is a "stupid, ignorant moron." And the ambiguity of Tari's accent to Mr. Johnston is part of the problem, and the source for the struggle. This struggle for power can also be seen in the names assigned to each character: Tari, the misunderstood employee of the world (does he live in India, Zimbabwe or Stockton, CA?), is referred to informally by his first name. Mr. Johnston, the mainstream (i.e., "white") customer from Redding, CA is known by his formal name. The hierarchy of power is established by the formal and informal uses of their names, along with their relative positions in society: One guy works, the other guy has the credit.

Because of these dimensions of power, and the tensions they embody, it's easy to see how this story won first prize. Congratulations, Emmanuel.