Amish discrimination?

July 28, 2005 11:08 PM

Do you know of any examples of discrimination against the Amish in business?
posted by furiousxgeorge to Society & Culture (7 answers total)

Given that the Amish are most widely known for staying away from the rest of society and not generally participating in a lot of our activities, what context is this in? Are you looking for examples of Amish being refused service in restaurants when they go to town? Aspiring Amish web designers being turned down for contracts because potential employers didn't think a guy with no electricity could make web pages? Amish farmers being treated unfairly or taken advantage of because they didn't know enough to avoid the issue?
posted by jacquilynne at 5:29 AM on July 29, 2005

I live pretty close to a large Amish community, so every week I'll see a couple of obviously Amish people in local businesses buying whatever they need. I've witnessed tellers say some cruel things behind their backs but in general I haven't seen much other discrimination. I've also witnessed tellers say cruel things about obese people, or people with bad teeth or whatever. It's discrimination but I take it more as a sign of the intolerance of immaturity rather than a sign of deep seated bigotry.

One thing I've read is that they're very susceptible to quack medical claims.
posted by substrate at 5:53 AM on July 29, 2005

As a contrary example - I recently saw some article with photos from Amish country where a bunch of horse-and-buggies were parked outside of a Walmart. Apparently the local Walmart had diversified their product selection and store layout (e.g., horse-and-buggy parking) to get the business of the huge local Amish population. (I'm not a huge fan of the Walton empire, just answering your question.)
posted by whatzit at 7:21 AM on July 29, 2005

From what I've heard, some business's really like the Amish, they pay in cash. particularly medical work where the cash payment is significantly larger than what insurance would pay.
posted by KirTakat at 9:45 AM on July 29, 2005

I don't know of examples of discrimination against the Amish but where I am from there are several large Hutterite colonies (an Amish subset) and unfortunately the Hutterite women have a real rep for shoplifting... weird I know....
posted by Cosine at 10:31 AM on July 29, 2005

Interestingly, my local paper ran a couple of articles about local Amish businessmen this week, including a man who installs vinyl windows and uses the phone to deal with customers (but gets rides in an "English" pick-up), and a variety of other cultural challenges, noting that over half of all Amish, today, are in non-farming businesses.

Because the Amish do not practice birth control, but usually have access to 21st century medicine, they have larger families and so the Amish community is growing and spreading, especially in the rural Midwest. This probably introduces the Amish into areas where they were previously unfamiliar, causing some period of adjustment. They're infamously subject to taunts and even thrown objects and buggies are not only subject to normal driver idiocy and drunkenness but the occasional deliberate game of chicken.

Interestingly, despite friction with the outside world or the general lack of productivity "enhancements" such as the PC, the Amish are generally successful in business.
posted by dhartung at 12:14 PM on July 29, 2005

Email?
posted by longbaugh at 8:59 AM on July 30, 2005