Visitors to our local McDonald's may have been confused in the past couple weeks. See, our store uses three windows for drive through service, and at the third window, the person handing out the order speaks virtually no English.

Now, I'm not a xenophobe by any stretch of the imagination. And I do believe that certain public service jobns should require bilingual capabilities of the applicants, simply out of necessity. But I have watched over my four months of employment as new hires have come in. See, they employ a tactic common to many Mexican communities: they hire in one Mexican and within months their whole family works there. Now our local restaurant is about 2/3 Mexican, and only a handful of those can speak Englich with any proficiency.

Now, handing out an order, that shouldn't be a problem. The problem comes when a customer needs condiments, or didn't get part of their order. That's when the nearest American grunt is called over to translate. This, of course, KILLS service times as it takes twice as long at a minimum to fulfill an order.

The other problem we've come across is their mini work "strikes". When one doesn't show up, they ALL don't show up. When one is pissed at a coworker, they ALL are pissed at the coworker. And they will frequently congregate in the back of the kitchen eating pilfered food that would lead to the dismissal of anyone else (but, because firing one means firing them all, it is acceptable for them).

Now before you accuse me of being racist, I LOVE the Hispanic community. I think they hold certain values that we as Americans have long forgotten and would do well to remember (such as their thriftiness and family support system). But I do not support employment on a double standard, one that prefers one race over another, be it because of race or because of family connections. And that is definitely the case here.