on the abusurdity of interviews

In early February I traveled south for an on-campus interview at a state school. This was the third on-campus interview I'd had in two years, so I am comfortable with the drill. Flew in Thursday, had dinner with search committee chair, Friday on main campus, demonstration lecture (later described to me as "the ballsiest demonstration one faculty member had ever seen), job talk (disaster - not a single intelligent question), meetings with A&S dean, department chair, tour of campus, dinner with committee. Saturday I went to the branch campus where I'll work, met with some of the other faculty, a few students and a closed door meeting with the staff.

The story is absolutely true, although I have changed the names.

There I was, in my interview suit, the only folks in the room other than me are the entirety of the branch campus staff, all women, all African-American, all relatively young (none probably over early 30s) save one older white guy, retired Army who was the IT "director."

They asked me every illegal question in the book, children, marriage status, hinted at sexual orientation, religious, you name it. Now, I had decided when I started on the job market that I would answer the illegal questions, but obliquely, so, when asked if I was married, I said, "I am in a position to make decisions about my professional life without regard for family," and so on. So far, unusual but not strange.

Then comes the shocker, the one other guy in the room says, "we'll if you aren't married and don't have a girlfriend, why not date Wanda over there, she's unmarried an' lookin' for a good man. She'll set you right up." (What in the hell does that mean!)

To which Wanda replied (loudly), "Well, Stan, maybe he don't like black chicks!"

Imagine my shock, here was the only other man in the room, and the only other anglo, trying to pawn off one of his colleagues to a complete stranger, aside from the weird racial implications of one white "offering" another white guy a black women....

I couldn't speak - "was this a test," I thought, "no - who in their right mind would think that up." Was there any way to avoid offending someone in this exchange?

Stymied for a move, I sat up and went to the front of the room and grabbed another slice of pizza.