Overview: This photo essay focuses on the interview I conducted with the Aramark staff at the Catherine Burrow Refectory.
Damian looked at me to make sure he had understood the question right. He agreed that from a purely racial standpoint, having a predominantly black staff with a predominantly white management and student body was obviously not just. However, he saw no outright problems in the workplace with this arrangement, and explained that these demographics were representative of this sort of workplace in broader Memphis, not due to racist motives in hiring. The worker demographics at Rhodes were symptomatic of broader structures of race in the South. Damian likes his job, and told me that he likes his coworkers and managers, too. I asked him if students were ever rude to him, and he told me no.
“I think most race relations are in people’s heads,” he said. “I think a lot of the way things are here is because of tradition, most people don’t question it and just go with it.” “Do you see that a lot in your coworkers?” I asked. “I think a lot of people here, especially the younger guys, act a certain way because they think they’re seen a certain way and expected to.” I explained what Stereotype Threat was to Damian. “Yeah, that’s what it is.”
The man pictured above (I wish I remembered his name) was power washing when I approached the rear entrance to the kitchen. When I asked if it would be OK for me to come in and take pictures, he politely told me he would go get his boss. A man with “Chef James” on his name tag met me and when I explained my project to him offered to take me on a short tour of the kitchen. He too said he likes his job. He and Antonio, another supervisor I spoke with, both sincerely wanted to know what I thought of the food.
Ginger told me she loves her job, and to her credit, I have never seen a frown on her face the whole month she’s been here. She told me she loves working around kids, and also explained to me that the reason certain people are always at certain stations is because they are hired to particular stations. “Different stations require different skills,” she said. She finds this arrangement helpful also because she never has to clean up after anyone else. She’s never seen anything racially motivated occur, and also has never met anyone who doesn’t like their job at the Rat. She also told me what benefits Aramark provides to its workers, including 401k, paid time off every month, paid vacation days every year, and holidays off. She makes $10 an hour, although I can’t be sure this is also the case for other starting positions. Even when she gets someone’s omelette wrong, she says no one has ever been rude to her. She told me she always asks why someone is down if they aren’t happy.
After observing the Home Zone for 15 minutes on three different days between 12:00 and 1:00pm, my conclusion is that curtness is simply the norm in cafeteria culture. I began by counting how many people went through the station in that time period, and of them, how many had said “please” and “thank you.” Of the approximately 40 people observed per period, about half of them would say “please,” and about 15 would say “thank you.” No one was outright rude to the staff, and one day I saw a supervisor named Antonio hop onto the line to pick up the slack when it was particularly busy.
I asked Dan the same questions as my other interviewees. He likes his job here, and told me even when he was the only white food worker it didn’t bother him. He says Aramark has a good business model and takes care of its employees. He hasn’t ever seen any racial injustices at work. He likes his supervisors, his coworkers, and the students.
“You [students] are for the most, fair and awesome.”
When I asked Antonio, a supervisor at the Rat, if he liked working here, his face lit up with a warm smile. He said yes, because the atmosphere is usually positive and he likes his coworkers. I asked if he liked Aramark in General, and he responded with “I love Aramark.” He gets along well with management, and told me he makes it his personal goal to brighten people’s days at work. He told me that while not everybody likes working here, most really do. He went on to say that his only critique of his employer was that the starting wage could be better. He himself began as a dishwasher and worked his way up to his current position.
“Is it 8?” Antonio asked. “7.25 I think, the federal minimum.” “That’s not enough. That’s for like, a high schooler.”
Julie Craig, the Senior Food Service Director for Aramark at Rhodes, was interviewed but is not pictured here. She loves her job and has been working in food at higher education institutions for 11 years. She says that she rarely sees racial implications lead to problems in her workplace, and that students being rude to her employees are certainly more the exception than the rule. She had only positive things to say about her coworkers and knew the name of all her employees when I mentioned their particular station. She told me that the woman who works the Home Station most lunches has been here for 10 years. Workers with seniority get first pick on what hours they would like.
