Race and trade

[darklord]

I know more about mainland china situation, the devastative culture revolution has destroyed many old family lines and a few overnight upstarts doesn't know how to follow the traditional Chinese reputation.

[avax]

klacoste said:

And would it be prudent for a smart businessman to hire frontline sales personal based on their race? i.e. hire Greek-descended waiters, while keeping the Chinese cooks out of view.

Yes. I have always thought it was the more prudent. More bitingly, outright foolish not to.

Along the west coast, it is not unusual to find mexican, chinese and sometimes koreans staffed at the back.

I am looking up better flamenco dance teachers at the moment and I must admit my prejudices run wild sometimes when the faculty seems completely american or north american "white" or some other nationality, though I have met fantastic non-spanish gurus. Dance is a little different.

Regarding retail and restaurant businesses, there definately should be frontline workers corresponding with the trade if there are ethnic references. There's not much psychoanalysis that goes into it, and we're not splitting atoms. People go out (they don't stay home and cook) usually because they not only want to be waited on, but they want the entire atmosphere and opportunity to transport themselves to another place, maybe even another time. It is 1) having someone do all the work for you, and 2) the joy of something you may not get everyday. Part of the feeling of being in a different place will naturally have to do with the people of the respective place.

I do think that there can be combinations. For the typical restaurant that caters to only food, it is wise to keep things consistent.

For the lounges, bars and other hybrid nightlife places where there are live music, dancers, waiters and other staff, if the focal point is not always the food, then a business owner may not waste his or her time on the hiring of corresponding staff of a particular ethnicity.

A business owner may also be equally prudent in hiring staff that are strategically mixed. Mixed, not biologically. Mixed meaning a predominant number corresponding to the culture/s featured AND have the few white, black, middle eastern and/or asian (etc) to cater to the nationality/ethnicity of the majority of clientele in the neighbourhood.

[dannyd]

It is very normal, I work in Leichhardt, Italian food central of Sydney, but working in the pub I've come to know alot of the staff at the various establishments and heaps of the cooks/chefs etc are Asian or other non Italian. But waitstaff are. As Celtriya said, you go specifically to Leichhardt to Leichhardt for a specific cultural experience.

On the flip side of the coin I travelled to Parkes a couple of years ago (an Aussie country town) and when we decided to get dinner, there were two Chinese restaurants across the road. One staffed entirely by white people (chef included), and the other by Asian people. Instinctively without any consideration we went for the Asian staffed one. I should have gone in the other just out of curiosity I guess

[Emily]

klacoste said:

What are everyone's views on "prestigious" industries such as luxury cars and jewellery? Would you feel more confident about the value and reliability of luxury goods if they were sold to you by a white instead of say an Asian Chinese or Indian? Does each race have a corresponding "value" that is appropriate of the goods they sell? Or could you say that some races are "midas-touched" in that whatever goods they sell automatically attract a premium? e.g. a white (or EA) perfume-seller in Bangkok would probably get away with higher prices for the same goods than an Asian peddler.

I'd say it's probably the same thing Celtriya exposed, one forking over the money for the experience.

If you're buying something luxurious, you want the whole experience to make you feel like a king, not just like you're forking over a big wad of cash. Most will, consciously or not, equate luxury and the pompousness that goes with buying a big-ticket item with white people. My guess is that someone simply would not revel as much in the experience if the person selling them the product looks like they couldn't afford/appreciate the refinement of the item. If the sales rep is Mexican, clearly their place is in the fields and not selling products they cannot relate to.

[halfbreed]

I'm 'iffy' when white people try to cook fried rice, asian dishes.

[miss feli]

zoffster1 said:

I must say that I am not convinced (however unreasonable this may be) when going into a restaurant and seeing someone of the 'wrong' ethnicity cooking ethnic dishes.

I don't really care who serves it, but the cook has to be right.

I somewhat agree with this one. I'd rather see a majority of that ethnicity, but if I see majority another ethnicity... well, from personal experience, I get a bad stomach ache, LOL.

[Ganbare!]

I'm necroing as the topic is very interesting.

Oct 28, 2007 22:28:32 GMT -5 Emily said:

klacoste said:

Does each race have a corresponding "value" that is appropriate of the goods they sell? Or could you say that some races are "midas-touched" in that whatever goods they sell automatically attract a premium? e.g. a white (or EA) perfume-seller in Bangkok would probably get away with higher prices for the same goods than an Asian peddler.

Although the answer to the first question is obvious, the second is just genius, not selling more but at a higher price! It's true that Asians tend to bargain more, that physical attractiveness is a fundamental aspect of luxury good industry sales but to think race could justify a premium, pretty smart.

On another note I dinned to a trattoria a couple days ago and was thrilled to see that the staff was 100% Italian, sometimes I just peek through the window to see if the staff/clientele is the 'right' ethnic. Last summer, me and some friends went to a Japanese restaurant, we ordered but minutes later I started panicking because I heard the chef yell something in Mandarin, my friends were not suspecting a thing, one of them even confide us that Japanese waitresses are cute, I'm glad I didn't leave as it turned out to be the best meal I ever had outside of the peninsula even if the restaurant was completely staffed by Chinese.

[Ganbare!]

It's funny but reading this thread just made me realize we discuss the EA identity almost exclusively in social terms while we do very little in terms of other perspective philosophy, biology, politics etc maybe we should expand the scope?