Kids Speak Their Mind About Race

Thursday November 20 2014

Race and Restaurants.

    The video "Kids Speak Their Minds About Race" is a video by CNN on the views of race on 
kids, a large part dealt with dating and relationships. It starts out by showing a picture of 
two kids in the hallway. One child is standing behind another while the other is on the ground 
picking up papers. The children are asked simple questions, like "are they friends?", and the
kids gave their thoughts. They proceed to go onto more difficult questions, such as "what would 
your parents think of you being friends with a black/white child?" The answers were quite 
surprising, some kids said their parents wouldn't be okay with that, even though the video was 

made in 2012, we still hadn't gotten past race. They proceeded to ask older children what their 

thoughts were too, and as the kids got older and older, the line between racial "do's" and 

"don't" became much thicker, one girl even saying she wouldn't be okay with herself or her 

family dating outside of her race. So what does this have to do with dining?

    In the U.S., we still are really racist. In dining, it's all the more prevalent. It's quite 

obvious that companies would like to do whatever they can to keep people's positive image of 

the waiters and waitresses in their minds, but what's sad is that they'll go as far as to hire

only white servers, waiters, and waitresses. One example is New York, while keep in mind that

26% of New York is African-American, "only 10.5% actually get jobs in the restaurant biz, and 

they're isolated to the lower class restaurants."(The New York Times) It's kinda crazy if you ask 

me, it's been how long since we as a nation declared that the color of your skin shouldn't have an impact. We made

laws and still people somehow go without accepting this as a fact of life. But before jumping to

the conclusion that the restaurants are the problem, there's one more bigger problem.

    So by now it's a fair question to ask, why do the restaurants do this? Well besides some of 

the employers being racist, it's in the consumer. We see black americans getting the short end, 

being paid less, and not getting as big or as many tips. Not only that, but we also are seeing 

cases of segregation, still. One cold hard fact is that, it's not just the owners, but when a 

family goes out to eat, if they're given a white waiter, they're more likely to tip more, and the

family that goes out to eat may be placed in the restaurant according to the color of their skin.

    What's truly amazing is that it is the twenty first century, and it's been a long time that 

race has had anything to do with anything. Problem is, it hasn't changed. Even now we have groups 

such as the Klu Klux Klan threatening to use "lethal force" on protesters, and having an all out 

cyber-war (totally serious) between internet hacktivists called Anonymous (these are the good guys), and the KKK. 

(You can find that article, here, or google #opKKK if you don't believe me.) 

    Concluding, race is still an issue, and we see it in the dining industry. Whether it's the 

company themselves hiring according to race, or people judging their servers according to race, 

racism is still here. Sometimes it's something as small as looking at someone different, to all-

out cyber-war, it still exists. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/30/nyregion/few-blacks-where-tips-are-high-racial-diversity-rare-for-waiters-elite.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945486/-Minority-restaurant-workers-get-the-shaft

Kids Speak Their Mind About Race

Mariah Bauer

Race in Restaurants

            The video “Kids Speak Their Minds About Race” which is broadcasted by CNN is letting people know how children feel about race.  They interview children who go to mostly white schools and schools with diversity.  The children in this study are shown different pictures of a child on the floor with his books everywhere and then another kid standing over him.  Based on the race of the child standing up people formed different opinions about what the standing up child was doing.  If the child was in the minority race children believed that the child on the floor had been pushed and that’s why his books are on the floor.  The next question they asked kids in these two school settings was “How do you feel your parents would react to bringing another race home?”. The reactions of the children depended also on race and also if they are the male or female bringing the opposite gender home.  Most children believed it was OK for a black guy to bring a white girl home.  They did not believe it was OK for a black girl to bring a white male home.  So there is a slight double standard set in this situation.  This video shows that even in 2012 race was and still is a big issue in the US.

            In the year of 2013 you may think that we have gotten past the whole racial discrimination in public places topic.  Sadly we have not.   At Wild Wing Café in North Carolina a black family had waited two hours to be seated and saw a huge empty spot in the restaurant and asked why they could not be seated there the restaurants response was “that wouldn't be possible, as another customer had requested Brown's party sit elsewhere because she felt “threatened."” This was all because a young white lady had encountered an altercation with a member of the party earlier in the night.   This shows that race is still prevalent when a restaurant is willing to lose a group of 25 people all because a white person does not want them to be seated by her.  All the Brown family wanted from this story was for an apology from the company.  He tried calling the store directly and all HQ but neither of them responded to his calls so he went to Facebook.  He put a rant on Facebook about what had happened and suddenly the restaurant payed attention to him.  This also shows that the restaurant wasn’t willing to do anything for a black family until many people could see their mistake.  This shows that they value one type of customer over another. 

            In an article on tipping I found that Americans are higher tippers then the African American population.  This study done by Cornell University found that blacks tip on average 20% less than white people (NPR). Most white and blacks are equal in the fact that they don’t know the appropriate tipping range in America is anywhere 15% to 20%. The average tip from a black person is roughly 13%.  The average tip from some of white decent is roughly 16.5% of their bill.  The black people’s defense to the reason that they tip less is they prefer more take-out food.  The fact that they prefer takeout food shows the fact that they may tip lower because they don’t know how to tip because they rarely eat at sit down restaurants.  So this article states in the long run that people don’t really know how to tip no matter what race it is.  Restaurants think that people need to be educated on what is appropriate to tip.  Restaurants try to have lower wages for their employees but compensate them in tips.  So if they have low tippers it could result in a lawsuit of not paying their employees minimum wage.  Overall this article shows that restaurants won’t say it but they wish all races would tip a little bit more.

            When you go to a restaurant do you think about the race of your waiter? In the Rosebud Restaurant Group they refused to hire African American wait staff.  Finding restaurants to work at is the main problem for blacks looking for employment.  A lot of restaurants will not hire black wait staff if it is in a predominately white community.  This article in general shows that white business owners to blacks seem to always be discrimination against them even if they don’t believe they are.  The restaurants may just not like the applicants but blacks take it offensively when there is only white wait staff.

            To conclude Kids Speak Their Mind Against Race, everyone now sees that race is a big deal in this country even if it is behind the scenes.  I think that people do it unintentionally without realizing it just because of the way they are brought up.  Overall race is still a big deal in this country’s restaurants systems even though people like to say the race barrier has been broken down in the US.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-09-17/news/chi-federal-agency-sues-rosebud-restaurants-over-racial-discrimination-claims-20130917_1_federal-agency-eeoc-chicago-area

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1329241

http://www.today.com/news/restaurant-investigating-diners-claim-they-were-kicked-out-over-race-8C11016258

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OKgUdQF-Fg

Mass Media - Sam Eide

Samuel Eide
Composition
Lora Strey
11/14/14

Mind Over Mass Media, by Steve Pinker, is an argumentative article concerning the status of society, the classroom, and overall how we are affected by Media. Media is everywhere, there is no avoiding it. It follows us where ever we see, on the television, on commercials, all of these are considered mass media. There is no way out of it.

How do you think certain restaurants maintain their popularity and advertise their new specials and food? Chain restaurants spend millions of dollars a year advertising their food and their new specials throughout the year. How do they advertise you ask? Through the radio, television, bill boards, etc. For example, everyone knows the catchy ring McDonald's uses in their commercials. "Ba-da-ba-ba-ba, I'm Lovin it." Over time this catchy ring gets heard and people talk about it and that gets business. Of course if a ton of people are watching the television, this will make people want to eat McDonald's and try the new, for example, the McRib.

10 Ways Restaurants are Using Social Media by Digital Dining, explains some methods used by restaurants to connect with customers through social media. For example, they "promote and show off new menu items." They use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to display their scrumptious meals and advertise them to various social medias users. They then explain how the users will see this and be drawn in. "Even if they don't see a lot of likes or favorites on what we post, we still have the activity and it gets our food out there into the public."

Overall, restaurants usually use the same method of Mass Media to attract specific customers and get new people into their restaurant.

What We Eat

Mariah Bauer

Casual Dining & What We Eat

What we eat which is published by Reading America talks about the choices that fast food companies make and the truth about their food choices.  It talks about how food is mostly processed and ran by science instead of natural forms.  The article states that “Better living through chemistry” is the way of the new fast food chain world.  It talks about how the food is kept “fresh” through many unnatural processes.  Overall this article states the horrors of the fast food chain and all the things that Schlosser believes is wrong with the way our fast food chains are ran. 

The problem with the casual dining setting today is the amount of money the workers are being paid.  Most people working a fast food job cannot make enough money to support a family.  Many fast food workers have pushed for the fast food companies to up their wages so they are better able to support themselves like every other person.  The problem is most employees want their wages raised to $15 an hour and fast food companies cannot absorb that cost.  Raising all basic workers wage to $15.00 an hour would cause a tremendous burden on the company.  What these workers don’t see is that the cost of what they sell their products for will also have to raise if they raise employee wages.  The higher ups of the McDonalds Corporation believe that they would either have to raise the prices or they would have to decrease the amount of food they provide for the same price.  Either way is not a win-win situation for McDonalds.  A solution that may come into play in years to come is that your orders will be all taken with technology so they will only need people to make the food.  This would allow McDonalds to raise those employees’ wages, but it would also lead to a huge job loss.  No matter what the employees of casual dining fight for there is no winning on either side of the spectrum. 

Another problem with casual dining today is the quality of the food.  There are many problems with additives in the food today as well as other issues related to our health.  Fast food encourages an unhealthy lifestyle which may lead to obesity it also encourages people to eat on the go.  Some of the additives in these foods mess with our body’s system and causes reactions that would not normally occur if this food was not consumed.  Although these foods may not seem like a bad idea to begin with because the basic things you look for on a nutrition label don’t seem too bad for you, you need to dig deeper.  There are many chemicals added to these foods to make them way worse for the consumer than what we are lead to believe.  Take the health risks as you want, just don’t believe all the false advertising that is thrown out to the public about these types of foods.

To conclude there are many issues with what we eat and how the people who prepare our food are treated in the United States.  Is there really anything we can do about it? There always seems to be something in the way just when you have a good idea to help better these particular topics. Liked stated in What We Eat “Science makes the food”.  I think you just have to be thoughtful next time you treat an underpaid employee poorly or you make the choice to put those types of processed foods in your body.

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/pricing-strategy-fastfood-restaurants-23939.html

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/09/higher-fast-food-wages-higher-fast-food-prices

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/07/15/processed-food-secrets.aspx

What We Eat, Rereading America, 9th ed., Edited by Gary Columbo, Robert Cullen, & Bonnie Lisle

published by Bedford/ St Martins, Boston, 2013

Blog Post #4: Mercy

                Some Thoughts On Mercy by Ross Gay is an article that talks about two different major issues. One issue is the stressfulness brought about by not only being pulled over by police, but being an individual of a minority race being pulled over by the police, especially for men. The other thing he ties into the article is the difference between human judgment and animal judgment, specifically that of bees. The true lesson Gay brings into focus by showing these two examples that seem to be polar opposite, is that it’s so common to judge people based on their race that they begin to believe they are bad people and usually end up playing up to the role, but animals don’t see race when they look at people, they sense your attitude and motives and respond to that, not appearances. I’ve heard many times throughout my life that dogs and children are the best judges of character because they don’t know to look at appearances, they look closer at the person and what they’re really like.

                Unfortunately, we don’t have dogs that can greet people at the entrance to restaurants, so people often get judged based on their race and other appearances. Courtney Swain talks a lot about the proximity of racism and service in her article Racism in Restaurants, which she wrote when she was just beginning as a waitress in a casual fine dining restaurant in Huston. She explicitly says that, “it was disturbing to think that racism was prowling so close to every dinner table, and how little people realized this.” Swain tells us her distain at the category the black clientele, referred to by her coworkers as “Canadians,” and how there could be a white couple and a “Canadian” couple that was equally rude, disrespectful, demanding, and awful tippers but the white couple would receive better and faster service than the other couple. She discusses how disgusted she feels at herself when she realizes that, even though she was raised that all people should be treated equal, she is becoming prejudiced in her eagerness to serve “Canadians.” After quitting the restaurant, she “look(s) back to that time with shame.” The fact remains that even though racism is frowned upon in America, its departure is far from done (Swain).

                The reality is that not only are customers treated differently based on race in restaurants, but the racial diversity for waiters in restaurants is limited. Glenn Collins and Monte Williams published Few Blacks Where Tips Are High; Racial Diversity Is Rare for Waiters in Elite Restaurants in the New York Times in 2000. As Americans we like to believe that racism is on a steady decline to vanishing, but the truth is that it is still present in many areas of life, maybe not as prevalent as it was in 2000, but nonetheless it still exists. According to their article, more than a quarter of New York City’s population is black, but of that large majority, only 10.5% of the waiters and waitresses are black according to a 1996 census. Most of that 10.5% work in poor quality restaurants on the low end of the spectrum, so the racial diversity in restaurants towards the other end of the spectrum is blatantly obvious. Brooks Bitterman, a research director of Local 100 of the Hotel employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, said, “The whiteness of waiters was striking considering “that 99 percent of low-wage kitchen workers are nonwhite minorities, Hispanics and Asians… That contrasts with white senior cooks in many kitchens, and primarily white front-of-house staffs.”” (Collins). Believe it or choose not to see it, the fact remains that racism is obvious in fine dining choices.

                It is easy to find articles that talk about the obvious and not so obvious racial profiling present in restaurants and how it is so hard to overlook these prejudices. Even people raised to believe everyone is equal like Courtney Swain, can be pushed to become racist by observing how she was treated and tipped by minorities. Not only do customers receive different treatment based on racial diversity, but those who want to work are victims of a racial profiling society. In New York City alone, the percentage of black individuals who live there compared to the amount allowed to work as waiters or waitresses in high profile restaurants is an astounding and disturbing number. Ross Gay explicitly expresses his view on how the world treats people of different races in his article, and provides us with an interesting ideal. If only we could see the world the way bees do, we could live in a happier and less fearful society. Instead of reacting to the color of a person’s skin, we should react to something deeper, their attitudes and morale to create a happier society.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/30/nyregion/few-blacks-where-tips-are-high-racial-diversity-rare-for-waiters-elite.html

http://www.fusionmagazine.org/racism-in-restaurants-2/

http://thesunmagazine.org/issues/451/some_thoughts_on_mercy?page=1

 

Next Time Someone Says Women Aren't Victims Of Sexual Harassment, Show Them This

Casual Dining & Sexual Harassment

Next Time Someone Says Women Aren’t Victims Of Sexual Harassment, Show Them This which is published by tickld.com talks about the different ways that women are sexually harassed by men and how the men respond.  This comic strip talks about the different types of sexual harassment and also about how the author feels males should respond to these different forms if they see it happening.  Some things it addressed was rape, slut shaming, groping, how men feel the need to comment on women’s bodies or their appearances (comic #6) and many more ways.  Towards the end of this article it talks about how men should react when they see these things happening to women.

            You may think do people really get sexually harassed in restaurants? That would never happen.  The sad reality is that it does. “A West Virginia restaurant received a request that their servers should show more skin.”  This request is most made by men looking to see more when they go out to eat.  Lots of servers claim that they will make more on tips in a night based on what they wear.  If it is something that shows a little more skin the statistics are that they will almost double their tips compared to if they are covered up and showing very little skin.  Does every restaurant allow people to wear what they want? Or is this more prevalent in bars where they waitresses are college students who don’t think twice about showing a little more.  I think the requests that customers make about how your employees should dress make a difference based on what kind of restaurant you are trying to run.  I found that the people who work at hooters make pretty good money in tips because they show a little more so it in a sense pleases the customer. 

            In an article I found women are more likely to work in establishments where the tips are higher.   This doesn’t mean they are making the same as men; they are still making less and have to put up with more for less money.  37% of all sexual harassment cases are women.  Considering that only 7% of the working women in the world work restaurants, that number is quite high.  How much more often do you think women who are servers get sexually harassed than the women who work desk jobs?   The answer is women who work in the food industry are 5 times more likely to have to deal with sexual assault.   

            How are business owners of these casual dining places responsible for keeping their workers safe from the sexual harassment that occurs within their establishment, you may ask?  There are sexual harassment policies built into businesses across the world but restaurant visitors believe that this only applies to workers can’t harass other workers, they are wrong.  The workers are protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  The businesses are responsible for any harassment that occurs within their establishment to their employees whether it’s employee to employee or employee to customer.  This includes comments, implications of sex, being touched inappropriately, and forced into sex or viewing sexual objects or pictures.  Here’s the catch they are not found responsible for the sexual harassment unless they know about it.  So if you keep it a secret and try to report it later after you are fired it doesn’t count because the employer was not aware of the situation.  In every state in the US if you have more than 15 employees you are required to carry a sexual harassment plan to protect your employees from the danger of sexual harassment in the workplace. 

            To conclude Next Time Someone Says Women Aren’t Victims Of Sexual Harassment, Show Them This.  There are many cases where women are sexually harassed in the work place or expected to do things to please their customers that are morally wrong.  In a sense though it is up to the restaurant as to what they expect their employees to deal with well working there.  Since each establishment can have its own sexual harassment policy no two places are the same, so make sure you know what you are getting into as far as policy wise well thinking about sexual harassment.

http://www.workforce.com/articles/what-to-do-when-sexual-harassment-comes-calling

http://www.people.com/article/atomic-grill-sexism-remark-response

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2012/02/16/female-waitresses-endure-pervasive-harassment-and-lower-wages/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/restaurants-sexual-harassment_n_1072043.html

http://www.tickld.com/x/next-time-someone-says-women-arent-victims-of-harassment-show-them

Bros Before Hos; The Guy Code

                                                                           Casual Dining   
Bros Before Hos; The Guy Code is a piece in a book by Michael Kimmel whom specialty is writing about masculinity and males. The piece talks about how society expects men to be masculine, tough, concerned about how big their muscles are, etc. The author talks about how most men aspire to be manly and tough and strong. "Never show your feelings, never ask for directions, never give up, never give in, be strong, be aggressive, show no fear, show no mercy, get rich, get even, get laid, win." (469)
         You might be thinking, how does this article at all relate to casual dining. With the "Guy Code", certain questions relating society expectations and the food industry can be very easy to talk about and answer.  Are there gender based foods? And are there societal expectations of gender in dining? Would guys prefer to eat at a sports bar with low quality food or a low-key restaurant with good food based upon the article we read? These questions are stereotypical questions that relate men to dining but it can share a lot of information and give a lot of insight.
"Yorkie bars, Nestlé has always told us, are "not for girls". They are to be growled from their wrappers and chewed in mouth-sized chunks by manly men, men with stubble, men with muscles that bulge like bellies. Flakes, however, are for ladies. Sexy ones, in lipstick and baths, who crumble off a feminine bite, before letting their eyes fall closed in pleasure." Says Eva Wisemen from The Observer. This shows that in society, there is in fact "gender based foods." Although that there is really no such thing as food that is specifically designed for just men or just women, there are standards and norms for foods that a guy would typically eat vs. food that a girl would typically eat. 
          "To Jenny Moon, the whole business of giving menus to women before men, taking orders from women be'fore men and clearing women’s plates first just didn’t make sense, not in the East Village in 2008". Frank Bruni wrote this article in 2008 about the restaurant called East Village in New York City, an upscale place to eat where upper class citizens tend to dine. The waitress believes that when she serves, she thinks everyone's plate should be cleared at the same time in an equal manner, instead she was trained to always make sure the women were taken care of first. "The gentlemen don't care where they eat, as long as they get food in their bellies. It's the women who care about what type of restaurant they attend and dine at". This was the message Bruni got when talking to dinee's at this restaurant and it shows that men tend to care less about the establishment they dine at compared to women.
          To conclude, Bros Before Hos; The Guy Code, in my opinion is pretty accurate with society and casual dining. I believe that in the food industry, there are certain expectations i.e, men eat more food then women, but for the most part there is not certain food designed for men or designed for women and that all food is meant for all people.
           
         






Bruni, Frank. "Old Gender Roles With Your Dinner?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 Oct. 2008. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.
Wiseman, Eva. "The Truth About Men, Women and Fiood." The Observer. The Guardian, 16 Oct. 2010. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.