06.09.06
How Do You Say “Cheesesteak” In Spanish?
Well, apparently it doesn’t matter how you say “cheesesteak” in Spanish, at least not if you want to get that bun of cholesterol at Philadelphia institution Geno’s. Joe Vento, owner of Geno’s and grandson of Italian immigrants, has placed a sign in his window stating that all orders must be in English. Is this because none of his employees can speak Spanish (or Mandarin or whatever)? No, not necessarily. The sign demanding English is prefaced by “This is America,” bringing all sorts of xenophobic sentiments into the carcass-and-cheese mix.
Vento, 66, is the product of immigrants himself and he insists he has no ill will toward immigrants. His grandparents arrived from Sicily without speaking a word of English. Vento said they paid the price, and it was not until the second generation, his parents, when to school and learned English, that the family truly realized the American Dream.
So he’s not racist…just paternalistic and kind of a jackass.
Juntos, a Hispanic community group in the now largely Mexican (as opposed to Italian) neighborhood, is going to try a legal challenge to the rule by sending people to order in Spanish. The group anticipates that they will be denied service and hope that will lead to standing for a discrimination suit.
Administrator said,
June 9, 2006 at 5:21 pm
In case you can’t tell from the story, I’m a vegetarian and have never actually eaten cheesesteak in my life. But I don’t begrudge others the “pleasure.” Bistec con queso!
ZPO said,
June 9, 2006 at 11:56 pm
How do you balance a business owners right to refuse service to anyone against a perceived right to conduct business in any language the customer pleases?
It seems a better tactic would be for people who don’t like it to simply not eat at Geno’s. Vote with their wallets.
Administrator said,
June 10, 2006 at 12:03 am
ZPO - I think that such a justification makes much more sense if it weren’t for the “THIS IS AMERICA” part of the sign. If it was purely for language barrier reasons, it seems to make logical sense. But it’s the undertone of hate that really bothers me. I honestly don’t think there is any grounds for a lawsuit, but it just makes me exceedingly uncomfortable to see what really is a well-known and homegrown business be so…disdainful, if not outright hateful, of a huge part of the neighborhood’s population. I am a big fan of voting with your wallet and, furthermore, I don’t think any law is being broken here. It’s the message that bothers me.
Chris said,
June 10, 2006 at 12:24 am
Vento repeatedly denies that anyone has ever been refused service.
He also says that this is “helping the people” because being able to speak English will help them succeed more readily in American society.
As someone on a local newscast pointed out the other night, “‘Whiz wit’ is English?” (Whiz wit is local-speak for a cheesesteak with Cheez-Whiz and fried onions).
Personally, as a Philadelphian? I think he’s doing it all for publicity. Hell, he’s been in the NYT, on GMA, and getting a shitload of local coverage on the news.
I’m sure that Pat’s Steaks (right across the street, of course) is planning some retaliatory assholery. Actually, they’re probably not.
Chris said,
June 10, 2006 at 12:37 am
Damn, I just watched the video from the link and in my above post everything was covered. I suck.
ZPO said,
June 10, 2006 at 12:42 am
If the message bothers you then it probably comes under the heading of protected speech. I think it was in the latest flag burning case where SCOTUS pointed at that it can be the offensiveness and deep emotional reaction that defines it as protected speech.
That is why I recommend voting via the wallet. If you try to put some legal smackdown in place then you end up restricting speech. That restricts the owner’s rights. If you vote with your wallet you exercise your rights in a way that may cause the owner to change his mind.
Administrator said,
June 10, 2006 at 12:48 am
Like I said, I don’t think there is anything illegal or unconstitutional about what he is doing. I just think its paternalistic, misguided, disrespectful, and…mean.
James said,
June 10, 2006 at 3:03 am
I’m not an expert on civil rights law, but I suspect you’re probably right that there’s nothing illegal about it, as long as he’s discriminating on the basis of language and not ethnicity. Not all sorts of assholishness are against the law.
mat8drb said,
June 12, 2006 at 6:28 pm
How do you say it in English? *goes to Wikipedia* Oh, okay, I want one of those.
Interesting flipside to the UK’s multiculturalism: the language debate is never entered into here, not even after the huge furore after July 7th, with calls from teh opposition to update the policy on multiculturism: very short sighted. I wonder if a similar debate will happen here in the next ten years. For the moment, the main discrimination story is that of disability access to shops