Friday, October 18, 2013

You Better Give Me Fries WIth That

   


            It seems in this day and age that there is nothing more American sounding than the prefix "Mc".  A McJob, McSalary, and a McDouble very commonly refer to the same idealisms.  When we think about "Mc" we think fast, low quality and time efficient.  Very rarely does someone go to McDonald's thinking: "Hey, I need the best meal in town given to me with the best service possible by people I can look to as my equals."  It has been my experience that not only are most fast-food workers talked down to by their customers, but judged throughout their entire time of service as being part of a lower class.  Introducing minority races to the mix just adds to the tension.  It is almost as if people now equate minority races to this specific line of work.
                    
            About a year ago before I came to Northern, I was back in my hometown at a local Burger King.  My town is fairly rural, without a ton of ethnic diversity.  It just very recently began to expand which made racial tensions become extremely high locally.  At this Burger King an older man maybe in his 60’s had his sandwich made wrong, so he took it back up to a high-school aged African American boy and calmly asked for a different one.  While this occurred, another white man in his 30’s made the comment: “ Damn monkeys behind the counter.  They have one job and still screw up.”  There was only one white male working that day and he was in the manager’s office.  I was there for about a half hour or so and never saw the worker report to his manager what had happened.

            I realize this took place at a Burger King and not a McDonald’s but the message is the same.  Rather than picking out the positional ladder in this case, I am going to choose to focus on the degradation minorities have to go through everyday at work with people like these.  In Catherine Ellis’ There’s No Shame in My Game, she writes: “…thousands upon thousands of minority teens, young adults, and even middle –aged adults line up for jobs that will subject them…to a kind of character assassination” (pg. 253).  She even states later that it is because there are no better jobs to choose from in most cases.   Minority races just as all other races take these jobs because it is a source of consistent income.  Why would the pursuing of a job be a reason to harass almost an entire race?  In my eyes, America has almost directly associated the “McJob” with a “McRace.”

            Why should McDonald’s employees be looked down on?  On their hiring portion of their website, McDonald’s states: “ We believe that different people, from different backgrounds, with different interests, combine to make our ideal work force.”  It seems like McDonald’s tries to hire many different minority groups.  McDonald’s may be lacking in a stereotypical career path, but they are still there to help provide income for those that may be lacking.  According to Manny Espinoza in an article he wrote in the Huffington Post: Promoting Minority Advancement: Creating Effective Workplace Environments, diversity in the workplace is imperative.  A diverse workplace leads to employee retention and is more than “A warm and fuzzy feel-good idea.”  Diversity serves to better the workplace, not give someone else a reason to tear it down.  Diversity will only lead to benefits when people stop equating low-income jobs with minority races. Until then, the “McRace” stereotype will be just as prevalent in America as the Big Mac.     

           
Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/manny-espinoza/promoting-minority-advanc_b_2711385.html
           
 http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/careers/working_here.html
             
                    
            

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