Letter: Racism at work

IN RESPONSE to Jonathon Carr-Brown and Alkarim Jiuani's article I can confirm from personal experience that racism is very much alive in the workplace ("Workplace racism is getting worse", 5 December).

I am a 17-year-old girl studying for my A-levels. As a part-time job, I am a floral assistant at the local branch of a major supermarket chain. The other week my departmental manager remarked on my nose-piercing, asking what it was. He referred to it as "Paki jewellery" and then went on to tell me that he is proud to be British and would not want to deface this image by wearing "Paki jewellery". I responded by telling him that I was disappointed by his sad and narrow-minded view. He replied: "I think it's sad that more people don't agree with me." I was shocked.

I then noticed that there are virtually no Asian employees, or none that I have noticed or seen. What worries me even more is that this man interviews a lot of the applicants for jobs at our branch.

MARIAH SKELLORN

Ipswich, Suffolk