“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” - Cornel West
VIEWS
September 19, 2020
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ERIK GALICIA | VIEWPOINTS
A server walks through the Fire Up Grill’s outdoor dining area as customers enjoy socially-distanced meals in the Main Street walkway of downtown Riverside on Sept. 16.
Restaurants, hospitality short on staff
Many workers find no incentive in returning to work after furloughs
ASHLEY HAYNER OPINIONS EDITOR
As employers gear up for the day inside eating is a thing again, they have a huge problem. The old gang just isn’t interested.
With unemployment bringing home $1,200 or more every two weeks consistently, it is no wonder so many people are not returning to work. I don’t blame them. But the lack of returning workers is affecting businesses. Ta k e t h e h o s p i t a l i t y i n d u s t r y, f o r i n s t a n c e . Open weekend and holiday availability is required of all workers in this business, whether they are hosts, servers, bartenders, bussers or cooks. Not even management is exempt from working holidays along with the rest of the staff. What about Thanksgiving and Christmas? Hospitality workers do n o t e n j o y t h o s e d a y s o ff with their families either.
Some employees work 10 and 12 hour shifts, six days a week, often eating and even working through their short breaks. COVID-19 has made yearlong and even permanent vacations possible for many who worked in the hospitality industry pre-pandemic. Employees have been furloughed, received cutbacks or even lost their jobs altogether and have had to quickly come up with a plan b. Yes, that unemployment check is nice now. But it wasn’t before, when the IRS was being bombarded with processing unemployment claims, stretching the wait for relief further and further. Meanwhile, bills poured in. Car and home lenders swore they were doing people
a favor by letting them begin paying six months worth of bills at once after six months of being jobless. Many in hospitality found out where they stood with their companies as early as March: without a job. It was a frightening time, but people were far from lazy even with so much time on their hands. Folks got creative. They created artistic face masks by hand to supplement their incomes. Some began selling insurance online, blogging, started home cleaning services, and became virtual assistants. Others began to master self-discipline, acquired healthier eating habits and lost weight. Because restaurants hate working around students’ schedules,
many took advantage of the quarantine by going back to school and getting certified in specific training. And some people are simply enjoying spending time with their family, creating memories on the weekends and holidays they have never had off. The hospitality industry needs to come up with new incentives to attract new teammates. A 20% discount on dine-in meals will no longer cut it for minimum wage employees. Even $15 per hour for part-time restaurant work hardly seems worth it anymore. Why would anyone run back to hard labor for long hours with stressful customers every single weekend without paid vacations or any benefits?
Social stigma harms interracial relationships
Family prejudices must stay out of the personal lives of couples
KEYSHONNA SIMMONS STAFF REPORTER
We are all fond of the story “Romeo And Juliet” and how they fell in love with each other
but could not be together. Their parents would never condone their marriage because of the hatred between the two rival families. Could interracial dating be the same as “Romeo and Juliet” in a sense? Many families still do not allow it. The disappointed stares from a society that says you must be with your own cause couples to hide their love from the public. As an African American female, all my life I heard that I should be with my own kind. My own family would say I need to be with a Black man and put me down for finding a man outside my race I found attractive. I have heard no one really likes Black girls except Black men.
But this is not my truth. Growing up, I had to hide who I wanted to be with and was only able to confide in two close cousins when I spoke to men of other races. This problem is prevalent in almost all communities, whether they are white, Black, Hispanic, Asian and so on. Some parents even attempt to set their children up with who they deem the best fit, all the while failing to realize their children are unhappy with the choice being forced upon them. It is an exclusionary view of love and it must be left in the past. There is nothing wrong with dating outside of your race. Your relationship should not have to abide by the requirements of
ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL REBOLLEDO
those who are outside of it. What matters is not your partner’s skin color, but that they treat you right, respect you and build
you up. As a Christian woman, I strongly believe color is irrelevant because God does not see color. I believe God does not care what color you are and neither should we. Yet, we do. Interracial dating is a beautiful thing. Skin color should not determine whether or not a person is a good enough partner. Color is not personality. Interracial couples should not have to hide their affection from their parents and families due to judgements like Romeo and Juliet. Race should never condemn a loving relationship. As long as this issue continues to evade publicity, it will continue to be swept under the rug and will be a problem forever.
