I have a daughter who is a rising senior in high school. It is August.  She was out of the country all last year as an exchange student.  Guess what that means?  That’s right: crazy catch up on visiting colleges.

Not to mention beginning to navigate the hell that is SAT/ACT for an anxious test-taker.  And since she got her permit the week she returned, there’s the-learning-to-drive thingy.

After a year of early-onset empty nest (temporary type), this is easy for exactly zero people in our household.

(I must thank my daughter who does not buy into the fancy-schmancy senior pictures industry and is pleased with the pics a friend took on Star Island.  Saved me some big buckaroos!  So all is not lost.)

Recently we were at an institution of higher learning when the admissions officer, while talking about their food management degree, mentioned that Spanish is a requirement.  Since my heart is in liberal arts education, and because I believe that usAmericans learning languages other than English helps to facilitate cultural understanding and peace, I was surprised by the snag I felt in my politically-engaged heart.

When I told this story to a friend, he thought this requirement to be pragmatic, given the reality of the restaurant industry, how many of its workers are Spanish-speaking immigrants.  He didn’t understand my concerns and I articulated them poorly.

I don’t disagree with the assessment that this is a pragmatic way to go for someone who wants to make a career in the world of restaurants and hospitality.

Still, there’s something creepy about this.

I went to the college’s web site to see if they offer any rationale for this.  I mean, I think I know why they do it, but I want to hear it from them directly.  Here’s there description of the course:

SPAN1011 Conversational Spanish I: Specialized Vocabulary  This course is designed as an introduction to the Spanish language and is tailored specifically to the needs of culinary and hospitality students. Emphasis is placed on basic sentence structure and oral communication, skills that students can use in the workplace.

On the same web page as the above course listing were other course descriptions, including this one for an elective course:

PHIL3040 Ethics of Business Leadership  This course examines the basic principles of ethics and their philosophical foundations, particularly as they apply to institutions, environments, leadership and other activities and pursuits of business. It examines those aspects of human behavior which can be labeled right and wrong. It considers the moral obligations of leaders and followers when discussing actual cases from a variety of business organizations that have presented management and subordinates with difficult moral dilemmas. It considers also the particular responsibilities of leadership in fostering and implementing ethical awareness within a corporate culture.

As part of the general information for this college, the web site stated that among other abilities, it expects its graduates to demonstrate the following:

• Apply personal accountability, ethical behavior and professionalism in a food and beverage operation.

• Implement critical thinking skills to identify and make ethically sound decisions.

Still that inarticulate snag.

Then, I read these two passages in Rebecca Parker’s essay, “Not Somewhere Else, but Here: The Struggle for Racial Justice as a Struggle to Inhabit my Country,” (in the book, Soul Work: anti-racist theologies in dialogue, published by Skinner House Book in 2003).

At some level, we know that our pristine garden has been created by what has been exiled and exploited.

and

Furthermore, [the traditional interpretation of the Garden of Eden story] teaches that a social structure in which one is abundantly provided for is not to be questioned.  Abundant provision is a gift of God.  This image comforts whites who benefit from economic structures that assure their thriving.  One is to accept privilege and never ask at what cost the walled-in garden is maintained.

Now, it is very possible that paired with the requirement to learn conversational Spanish that can be used in a culinary or hospitality environment, that the curricula for “examining those aspects of human behavior which can be labeled right and wrong” addresses the too-prevalent practice of business owners exploiting immigrant workers or the ethics of paying a fair wage should they decide to employ undocumented workers, even if other businesses in town may not be or if it cuts into their bottom line and they can get away with it because undocumented workers are too afraid to complain to authorities.  It is possible.

Last year, when meeting with the head of a local organization that serves the Latino community where I live, she said that I would be surprised at how poorly people in the kitchens are treated in this town known far and wide for its great restaurants.  She did not name names, but she spoke in particular about one business man who is publicly known for his kindness and largess, but who is known by his Latino employees as unfair and discriminatory.

Here we are: taught not to question how our abundance – for that is what a dinner at a restaurant is – is provided.  But we have choices in this, like joining the UU Service Committee’s campaign for compassionate consumption.

Will this Ethics in Business Leadership explore the political, societal, and ethical layers of what it means that our nation’s Spanish-speaking citizens and residents are often relegated to these invisible, poorly-protected worlds of work, mostly in service industries, that allow those of us with privilege (class or race) to ignore that our “pristine [restaurant] has been created by [who] has been exiled and exploited.”  Does the course require the book, Behind the Kitchen Door, by Saru Jayaraman, which explores how “restaurant workers live on some of the lowest wages in America” and survive poor working conditions, such as “discriminatory labor practices, exploitation, and unsanitary kitchens.”

I sure hope so.  Because I am all in favor of more and more food management graduates who leave school with “critical thinking skills to identify and make ethically sound decisions.”

Here’s a short video trailer for the book, Behind the Kitchen Door, which introduces the many potential and realities for unjust treatment of workers in the restaurant and hospitality fields.

** I’ve sent emails to people at this university in hopes of learning more specifics.  Once I hear back, I’ll be sure to post.