“Cases
like this illustrate that, unfortunately, race discrimination continues to be a barrier for
African-Americans seeking employment and this is the latest in a series of such
challenges.”
-David Lopez
-David Lopez
Illinois
based Rosebud Restaurant Group was recently but on blast by the media for their
acts of racial discrimination. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
filed a lawsuit against the corporation. Rosebud claims that they don’t
tolerate discrimination in all 10 of their Chicago area restaurants. EEOC
regional attorney John Hendrickson stated, “Major restaurants in Chicago present the face of the city
to the world, so it is a special shame when they present a face disfigured by
intentional discrimination.”
It
is a shame. Chicago is a cultural melting pot where there are different races
around each and every corner. One would think that a city so diversified in
rich heritages should glorify differences, right? Wrong. Chicago is one of the
most segregated cities in the nation. According to Douglas S. Massey in his
article Residential Segregation and Neighborhood Conditions in U.S.
Metropolitan Areas, Chicago was one of seven metropolitan areas that have extreme
segregation against Blacks. Massey states that an index of dissimilarity is a
measurement that is used to represent levels of residential segregation.
Chicago made the top of these index charts for every race.
It
shouldn’t be surprising though, segregation happens everywhere so the bigger
the city the more segregation. It makes sense on terms of population at least.
It doesn’t matter what town, city, or district one lives in, the harsh reality
is that there will be discrimination. Everyone knows that one restaurant or
food place that hires only a certain type of people. Just the other day someone
around me mentioned that “Oh, I can’t work there, they only hire Hispanics.”
Upon asking why, they responded by saying that the restaurant wants to have “authenticity.”
A good employee or cook should be determined on their skill, but if a white
person cooks Chinese food, it’s not as tasty. We’ve all done it too; we get
confused when we see a white sever in a Mexican restaurant or a black chef in
an Italian kitchen, or an Asian hostess in a BBQ joint. But why? It’s not “authentic?”
Back
to Rosebud; despite the violations and out-lash on the company according to
Peter K. Levine Law Corporation, a spokesperson for the Group made a statement:
“We consider it our mission to treat our employees as a family – with honesty
and respect – and we are proud of our employment record and the diversity of our
work force.” Yet, the Group takes pride on
their hearty authentic Italian restaurants. Sugar coated words don’t make up for
the lack of evidence however, and the Rosebud Restaurant Group was charged with
“failing to hold onto employment applications for at least a year and by not
filing required annual reports with the agency before 2009.”
Authenticity
is a fancy word for genuine. So if a black person is genuinely good at cooking
Italian dishes, then there is no need for discrimination, right? In today’s
society it’s hard to distinguish which people come from what ethnicity. There
are more combined races now more than ever, so who are we to determine
what is and isn’t authentic.
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