I recently wrote an email to a friend detailing this phenomenom and its growing spread in Kansas City. The following details the new workplace segregation being imposed by restaurant owners across the country.

The face of racism in this country is changing, the actors are different but the hate and the desire to segregate are the same. All the while those who practice this new type of racism cry out that if you disapprove then you yourself are racist. It has taken me months of fact finding and soul searching but I have concluded that there is no way that asking all races to be able to openly communicate in a work environment is racist and there is no way that hiring only people of one racial background to do a particular set of jobs and cannot speak a certain language is not racist.

While in KC I spoke with a 30-something white girl who had been down on her luck. She said she was turned away from various fast food restaurants because she could not speak spanish. She finally landed a job at the cash register but stated that many times she makes a mistake on an order and the kitchen staff cannot understand her to change the order causing a potential health hazard. Her exact quote was "They are so worried about us washing our hands and keeping counters clean... but we give people the wrong orders all the time which could and has caused allergic reactions.. so far just minor....."

Why Workplace Segregation is Wrong:
1. Separation of employees based on linguistic ability and therefore based on race and national origin is wrong.
2. English is the ONLY National language of the USA and the language spoken by all of its citizens
3. Lack of the ability to communicate could cause potential health problems such as asphyxiation due to an allergic reaction.
4. American workers are now unfairly being discriminated against because they do not speak a foreign language and therefore are discriminated against based on their race and national origin which in many cases amounts to a sort of 'legal racism' in which companies can segregate their kitchen workforce. A practice known as "Workplace Segregation".

Solutions:
1. Major companies like McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell as well as pretty much every other Fast Food chain and sit-down restaurant chain are guilty of Workplace Segregation in some form or another; the most common being that kitchen and cleaning staff be non-english speaking hispanics. They force a division which they claim is based on those willing to do a job but which inevitably is based on racial backgrounds, putting american lives and health at risk for profit gains. This also makes it much harder for Americans to find jobs that they may need in these areas and which many teenagers and college students are now left out of. Too alleviate this these companies need to provide as a condition of employment that any immigrant workers take english courses payed for by the employer. They also need to provide that all workers speak english in the workplace while working on company time to ensure a smooth and constant flow of communication with no risk of causing the public health problems. This will also open the kitchen, and other jobs normally done out of view of the public, back to normal American citizens of all races, ethnic backgrounds and national origin. As English is a requirement of Citizenship to this great nation it seems a simple thing that we ask all those who come here, and those who hire them that we ensure they are able to communicate in that language... at the very least at work.