Discrimination on the Menu

Overview:

The Chicago Tribune article, “Race Gap Seen in Restaurant Hiring,” explores the roles of race and class in staffing and uncovers examples and statistics pertaining to employment-related bias at our nation’s restaurants. According to the article, a recent Chicago-based survey revealed that 80 percent of whites work in the “front” of restaurants as waitstaff and hosts while nearly two-thirds of Hispanics work in the back. “Front” jobs pay more, offer more opportunities for advancement and better working conditions. This has led to several lawsuits. In fact, the McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant chain recently paid $1.1 million to settle a class action suit by black employees who said they were passed over for jobs as hosts and servers.

Bias is only part of the story. For restaurateurs, choosing employees to be their establishment’s “public face” involves complex perceptions of race and class. Sometimes that process holds back not only minorities but also white workers who don’t have a certain look. And many immigrant busboys and dishwashers can’t become servers because they haven’t mastered English or secured legal status.

In related news, the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a national restaurant workers’ organization, recently released a report called, “Behind the Kitchen Door,” which studied data from Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, Maine and New York City. In all five locations, “workers of color” were largely employed in the industry’s “bad jobs” (low wages, few benefits and limited opportunities for increased wages) while white workers disproportionately held the “good jobs” (living wages, access to health benefits and advancement opportunities). Workers also reported discriminatory hiring, promotion and disciplinary practices.

This lesson challenges students to reflect on themes of fairness, perception, discrimination and legality with regard to employment and to examine their own biases and related experiences.

Professional Development

Anti-Racism Activity: The Sneetches [1] In this early grades activity, students learn about unfair practices in a simulation exercise and then create plans to stand up against discrimination.

Test Yourself for Hidden Bias [2] Students may not realize what hidden biases exist in their psyches. Psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington created “Project Implicit” to develop Hidden Bias Tests to measure unconscious bias.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 [3] makes it illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin or sex.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [4] is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.

Early Grades [5]

Middle Grades [6]

High School [7]

Standards [8]

Activities and embedded assessments address the following standards (McREL 4th [8]^[8] edition [8])

Language Arts

Standard 4: Gathers and uses information for research purposes

Standard 7: Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of informational texts

Standard 8: Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes

Standard 10: Understands the characteristics and components of the media

Civics

Standard 9: Understands the importance of Americans sharing and supporting certain values, beliefs, and principles of American constitutional democracy

Standard 11: Understands the role of diversity in American life and the importance of shared values, political beliefs, and civic beliefs in an increasingly diverse American society

Standard 14: Understands issues concerning the disparity between ideals and reality in American political and social life

Standard 18: Understands the role and importance of law in the American constitutional system and issues regarding the judicial protection of individual rights.

Standard 25: Understands issues regarding personal, political, and economic rights