[Blindtlk] Confronting Discrimination at McDonald's
Marion Gwizdala
blind411 at verizon.net
Sun Jul 13 02:02:38 UTC 2014
Ray,
Your points are well taken; however, you were not there and did not
face the humiliation and deceit of this manager. Furthermore, we have done a
great deal of work with Caspers company, the franchisee of our local
McDonald's. Another point is that, if one is to work in a place of public
accommodation, it is their responsibility to know the laws that govern the
conduct of that business. Finally, there was never a threat of a law suit;
there was merely a statement that the law was broken and what the penalties
for such an infraction might be. As an armchair observer, it is easy to say
what you would have done; however, in the midst of the stress of such
blatant discrimination and lack of accountability and integrity, I believe
we handled this situation in the best, most assertive manner possible.
Fraternally yours,
Marion Gwizdala, President
National Association of Guide Dog Users Inc.
National Federation of the Blind
(813) 626-2789
(888) 624-3841 (Hotline)
President at nagdu.org
http://www.nagdu.org
High expectations create unlimited potential for the blind!
-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ray Foret
Jr via blindtlk
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2014 4:26 PM
To: Marion Gwizdala; Blind Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Confronting Discrimination at McDonald's
I must say, I have the following thoughts.
1. Seems to me that the manager spoke better English than she let on.
2. It's pretty obvious that somebody's not telling the truth about whether
or not the manager said guide dogs were not allow in the restaurant. So,
yes, there is a legal problem here: or, to be more exact, a law awareness
issue.
3. While I understand Merry's feelings about the matter, I feel that she
came off rather cold and legalistic. I understand what she was trying to
do: and, while I agree with the substance of what she said, I feel that if
I were a manager, I would not have been very receptive to her approach and,
to put it quite frankly, I would have been a little put off by it. Of
course, one could validly argue that the stress of the moment of being
subject to discrimination might well bring that out in a person. Fair
enough: however, I feel that a warmer approach might have gotten a little
further. Yes, of course there is a problem. Yes, it needed to be dealt
with. Not to have done so would have been wrong. Indeed, it would have
been very very wrong. Still, I cannot help but wonder if the best approach
was taken here. While it may be said truthfully that the approach Merry
used was surely better than none at all, I myself wonder how I would have
done it. Honestly, I cannot say what I would have done: but, I would have
if possible used perhaps a softer tone of voice and made it more
conversational. It may be fairly said, I suspect, that it's easy for me to
say that since I'm not the one dealing with it: but, I think that if one is
truly ignorant of a wrong having been done, one must be corrected in a way
which seems less threatening at first. We cannot always remain in an armed
camp mentality: for if we do, we will lose something of the humanness which
makes the Federation what it is. After all, not every sighted manager is
bad or ignorant.
4. Another point which causes me concern, (and here I speak more
generally), is that I am noticing that almost every time something goes
wrong for one of us, we threaten to sue. Is that what we are reducing
ourselves to nowadays? Also, I think we need to be more careful about what
causes we embrace. After all, what does this do to our image as a group if
we impulsively embrace a cause without knowing all the facts only to
discover later on after we've made all our noise and protests that the
so-called facts of the case turned out not to be true at all or else so
partially true that we wind up being made fools of?
Let me close with this. The video does appear to demonstrate
validity to much if not all of what was claimed: but, I would urge us to
put raw emotion aside and make very certain that we have all the facts of
any case before plunging in to it.
Sincerely,
the Constantly Barefooted Ray, Still a very happy Mac and iphone user!
Sent from my Mac, the only computer with full accessibility for the blind
built-in!
On Jul 12, 2014, at 2:38 PM, Marion Gwizdala via blindtlk
<blindtlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Please feel free to disseminate and repost this message as widely as
> appropriate.
>
>
>
> Dear All,
>
> Some of you were unable to access the video, so, thanks
> to a fellow Federationist who posted it to his YouTube channel, here
> it is to view!I have also included a brief narrative from merry that
> will offer a little more background before the link.
>
>
>
> Fraternaly yours,
>
>
>
> Marion Gwizdala, President
>
> National Association of Guide Dog Users Inc.
>
> National Federation of the Blind
>
> (813) 626-2789
>
> (888) 624-3841 (Hotline)
>
> President at nagdu.org
>
> http://www.nagdu.org
>
>
>
> High expectations create unlimited potential for the blind!
>
>
>
>
>
> Before everyone views the video I will give a brief description of
> what happened before the video was taken.
>
>
>
> Marion and I walked into our local McDonalds- we have been in this
> restaurant hundreds of times. I have lived in this area off and on
> since
> 1988 and have been a permanent resident since 1997. Marion and I
> bought our house here in 2003. This area is great for pedestrians
> because it has some stores and restaurants within walking distance -
perfect for our lifestyle.
>
>
> Continuing on...
>
> We stood together in the lobby waiting for an available cashier for a
> few minutes. When we approached the counter a young man came from
> the back of the restaurant and stated that the manager said no dogs
> allowed. We shared these were service dogs and the cashier stated it
> as well. I then asked to speak with his manager, he replied that his
manager did not speak English.
>
> I was actually dumbfounded by this. We ordered our food and got our
> drinks and sat down to eat.
>
>
>
> As we ate we discussed with each other that we needed to educate the
> manager before we left and video this interaction. We were going to
> ask for a translater. We video recorded an introduction before
> moving towards the counter area. As we began to move toward the
> counter area the manager approached us.
>
>
>
> Now some thoughts before we spoke to her. Yes our neighborhood has a
> great deal of Hispanic speaking individuals, our local Latin American
> Grocery store has the best and cheapest Cuban sandwiches. Back to
> topic: As we discussed over our meal although there is a great deal
> of Hispanic speaking individuals in our neighborhood there is a higher
> percentage of English speaking people. It did not make sense to us
> that McDonalds would put a manager in a restaurant that does not speak
> English well. The video will show that the manager still claims she
> speaks little English. After the recording, our cashier was in the
> lobby taking a break and I asked her if the manager spoke English she
> stated she did. Unfortunately, as the video will demonstrate, the
> manager took no responsibility for her employees actions and basically
threw them under the bus.
>
>
>
> We have worked in the past with this McDonalds to do local events and
> have contacted a member of upper management (Director of Marketing)
> for the Corporation. I am sure we will hear from him on Monday. He
> can view the video as well.
>
>
>
> I was a restaurant manager in 1984 and if something liked this
> occurred in my store, I would have been proactive! I would have been
> at my customer's table while they were eating, took their receipt,
> reimbursed them their money, gave them tickets for free meals on their
> next visit,and I would have told them my employees were wrong in
> their behavior and I would train them appropriately. This manager did
> none of these things and only appeared to have her employees do her
> dirty work and then be deceitful in the area of communicating with us.
> Apologies are not well received when they don't appear genuine! Now for
the video!
>
>
>
> http://youtu.be/kePK2vedOog
>
>
>
> Merry Schoch, Vice President
>
> Florida Association of Guide dog Users
>
>
>
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