Lost In Translation: Supermarket Employee Fired For Not Being Latino
4 June 2009, 11:17 AM. By Alex Alvarez
A white, non-Latino meat cutter claims he was fired from his job at a supermarket because he was not Latino. The employee successfully sued Compare Foods supermarket in Statesville, North Carolina for $30,000 through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The company has also implemented an official anti-discrimination policy. This isn’t the first time Compare Foods has been slapped with such a lawsuit - another supermarket in Charlotte, North Carolina settled with the EEOC after allegedly firing three non-Latino workers (two of whom were white and one who was black) from their meat department because of their race and ethnicity and replacing them with Latino employees. Who are robots.
One of the workers involved in that lawsuit, Eugene Gates Jr, says his shifts were cut in half and taken over by a Latino worker in his early 20s who, the management informed him, could better relate to the supermarket’s Latino customers. Gates said that relating to this influx of Latino clientele was not a problem, and that they could communicate by pointing out what it was they wanted and either emitting a low wail to show satisfaction or clicking their tongues wildly and thrashing on the floor to demonstrate discontent.
The Charlotte Compare Foods store had primarily brought in mostly black, non-Latino customers but, in recent years, more and more Latinos had moved in and begun shopping for their groceries at the store. The store then began to implement changes such as paying salsa music, featuring more food products from Latin American and introducing signs and labels in Spanish.
The way we see it, from what we know so far about these cases, is that this is probably not so much a matter of discrimination based on ethnicity (not intentionally, anyway), but a matter of language. You don’t need to particularly understand or be a part of a particular culture or ethnic group to sell someone a slice of meat, but you will likely run into trouble if you cannot communicate with your clientele because you literally cannot speak their language. Instead of teaching employees about anti-discrimination, which is useful to an extent when dealing with adults more or less set in their ways, why not use funds to train employees on useful and basic words and phrases in Spanish that they can use to help their customers?
At any rate, we totally see more and more of this happening in the future and we definitely foresee a case of language being construed as an attack on race or ethnicity.
What do you all think?
Supermarket Fired Employee Because He Wasn’t Latino [HR.BLR]
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I know a LOT of Latinos who speak no Spanish at all and would be in the same situation as Eugene Gates, Jr. So, I totes agree with taking the time and money to teach existing employees (regardless of their race/ethnicity) some basic Spanish words needed to run their nook of the store.
i hate to say it but some latinos will not try to learn more English than they have to use. and i’m sure the clientele wasn’t exactly nice to the white guy.
I’ve some in contact with some latinos who know how to speak spanish but refuse to do so at their place of work.
I’ve known a couple people who would benefit from learning basic spanish for their work but they have they “if you come to america learn english” attitude.
If the EEOC happened to rule in favor of the former employees, then several other steps were not taken by the Compare Foods HR dept to justify the termination, obviously. I agree that providing basic lessons in Spanish would have been the better path, but who is to say how beneficial this effort would be if the same employees refused to take or use these lessons.
I grew up in California and most of my mex/american friends spoke far better english than spanish. When i moved back there in 2004 mexicans would approach me and babble in Spanish without even attempting english.
My reply to them cannot be reprinted here. I said it in in English and they DID comprende. If Americans had the ballls to confront these people openly, and these firms that instigate such nonsense, it would change real fast.
But Americans are spineless p.c. cowards, for the most part, so I doubt that will happen. Wave goodbye to this country.-lost without a shot fired.
Note: For the purposes of transparency, I’m letting you all know I’ve unapproved “Guest’s” comments as he or she resorted to hate speech. When and if Guest returns and decides to comment further, it will be on a case-by-case basis. People are entitled to their prejudices and opinions, but Guanabee is not a forum to air personal rants riddled with racist and xenophobic language.
Let’s keep the conversation focused on the topics presented in the post without attacking fellow commenters. Thanks, everyone.
Eugene Gates Jr
Eugene Gates Jr. ‘Butch’ Mr. Gates, of Charlotte, passed away September 15, 2009. The family will receive friends 11am-12pm Monday, September…
Published in Charlotte Observer on September 20, 2009
Poor chap!
Aww, pumpkin. How nice it must be for you to live under your little rock. What you might not realize is that the Spanish language is inextricably linked to the Latino culture itself. There is a deep-rooted connection that is well beyond what you perceive to be laziness.
You’re even more stupid than I thought. Why did the pilgrims come to a country where they did not speak the language? Figure it out, genius.