(Posted without Comment)
White, Male & Broke in Los Angeles
June 11, 2015
A reader feels like an outsider in his own hometown
"I speak perfect English but I can't seem to get a job in my own country! I have to know Spanish."
by Vincent Fraser
I'm a white male who lives in Los Angeles, CA where I was born and raised. I'm also half Italian on my mothers side but my last name on job applications displays my fathers "white" last name.
I just turned 40 on June 1, 2015 and I'm completely broke and penniless. I've been unemployed since March of 2013 when I slipped at work and dislocated my shoulder.
I worked as a bartender at a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills, in their 5-star fine dining restaurant. I was in the kitchen one night when one of the cooks had left an oil spill without cleaning it up. I slipped on the spill and landed on my left shoulder.
I went straight to the ER and the doctor popped my shoulder back into its place without any painkillers. The doctor took me off work for the next three months, as I was not going to be able to do the job properly. I applied for disability and received payments for three months while the Workers Compensation case was being processed in the courts. I was awarded a small amount of money to pay for my shoulder. That money ran out very quickly, mainly just paying rent.
The hotel paid me less than $20K and forced me to resign and agree to never apply for work with them again because of the lawsuit. My lawyer assured me that future potential employers wouldn't be able to discriminate against me as a result of that case. I feel my lawyer mislead me. I never should have sued.
WILLING TO WORK
I've had a job and been a responsible member of society since I was 16 scooping ice cream at Baskin Robbins, and paying my way through community college, where I attended in 1995. Affirmative Action was in full swing at this time and this was the first time I felt discriminated against by the system. I made about 17k that year barely getting by but in order to get financial aid for school, I had to have made 16.5k or less, so I didn't qualify and eventually dropped out because I simply couldn't pay.
That was 20 years ago! ...And I'm still struggling, but I haven't quit. I was forced to swallow my pride and accept government assistance. I'm now living on General Relief and Food Stamps, desperately trying to find a job. Every company out in Los Angeles has a high percentage of latinos (many of which do not even speak English) working as are other races. However, I feel that in Los Angeles there's some serious racism happening towards white people.
People claim that latinos are the only people who would accept lower paying jobs, but this is simply not true. The Latinos who took those jobs years ago when the majority of others wouldn't, are in all the hiring positions of power and management now. So guess who they're hiring, all of their friends and family. Every hotel, restaurant, bar, or service oriented position that I interview for, about 90% of the staff is Latino or women. I've seen it with my own eyes. The claim that there's no such thing as a poor white person is ludicrous.
WHITE MALE SYNDROME
My parents didn't raise me with a racist bone in my body. I speak perfect English but I can't seem to get a job in my own country! I'm a talented Mixologist and Bartender. However most of the bars in LA only hire women. Now, I know that I happen to work in an industry that caters to women.
I did not realize that there was so much racism and sexism in the service industry when I began....and now I want out. I want to start over but I don't know how or where to begin. There are scholarship funds available for almost every race or creed of people on this planet except for the "White American Scholarship Fund"...that doesn't exist...or the "American-American Born and Raised Here Scholarship Fund"...that does't exist either and if a white person such as myself even brings that point up, we get labeled a racist.
I feel that Affirmative Action is still being used in Los Angeles. Many of the requirements for jobs in LA state that you have to be bilingual and know Spanish, just to get a job in our own country, but these people aren't required to learn English in order to get a job here in the USA?!
I have no one to talk to about this because no one can relate or even has the capacity to even try to understand. I feel lost and thought I'd write you. Any advice you can offer would be sincerely appreciated.
----
First Comment from Paul A:
I must admit that I do not feel too much sympathy for Mr. Fraser. I have seen too much of what he describes, and I believe that his tale is accurate. But I think he is investing more in whining about his problem than coming up with solutions. I too worked in the restaurant business, but decided to get out before getting too old. 40 years old is not what people want to look at when they go out. 20 is more like it. He should have known that. Also, if he grew up ion LA, he should have known that Spanish is highly desirable. If he didn't bother to learn it, oh well. I did, and now half my customers speak Spanish.
The fact is that in America, whining about discrimination and fairness are luxuries that accord to race. Many folks of different ethnicities do not actually have the extra five percent to offer that will get them the advantage that helps them succeed. So they want set-asides, hand-outs, and quotas to help them get a decent living.
Whites do not have those helps available to them. Nor do they need it. They have the extra 5 percent. If you put in 5 percent more effort than the other guy, you will succeed. We have proven it. It is generally the white race that invented the computer, airplane, automobile, agricultural machinery, electronics, air conditioning, indoor plumbing, architecture, power plants, etc. And it is generally the white race that keeps these things in operation, as well. The white folks who did those things worked very hard. They also did it on spec; not knowing if they would be successful or whether they would waste their time and efforts. They did it anyway.
The white folks who chose not to do those things drifted to Appalachia and similar environs, where they focused on acquiring pick-ups propped up on cinder blocks, investing in alcoholism as a hobby, and impregnating their sisters. You can see how that worked out.
It is not white privilege that makes whites successful, it is effort. Vincent must make the effort. He'd better quit whining because whining won't change his situation. Other races won't care, and other whites are too busy fighting their own battles to worry about a guy who refuses to measure up. He has a choice. Make a plan, put in the effort, and see what he gets a year from now, or sit back, feel sorry for himself, and complain, then see what he gets a year from now.
He should listen to Al Thompson. His advice is pretty good. The only comment on that is to say that if California had not been "stolen" from Mexico, it'd be just like Baja California is today, and what Mexicans we had would be trying to get into the other States.
We have to deal with what is, not what we wish could be. So get off your butt and get busy.
-
White, Male & Broke in Los Angeles
June 11, 2015
A reader feels like an outsider in his own hometown
"I speak perfect English but I can't seem to get a job in my own country! I have to know Spanish."
by Vincent Fraser
I'm a white male who lives in Los Angeles, CA where I was born and raised. I'm also half Italian on my mothers side but my last name on job applications displays my fathers "white" last name.
I just turned 40 on June 1, 2015 and I'm completely broke and penniless. I've been unemployed since March of 2013 when I slipped at work and dislocated my shoulder.
I worked as a bartender at a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills, in their 5-star fine dining restaurant. I was in the kitchen one night when one of the cooks had left an oil spill without cleaning it up. I slipped on the spill and landed on my left shoulder.
I went straight to the ER and the doctor popped my shoulder back into its place without any painkillers. The doctor took me off work for the next three months, as I was not going to be able to do the job properly. I applied for disability and received payments for three months while the Workers Compensation case was being processed in the courts. I was awarded a small amount of money to pay for my shoulder. That money ran out very quickly, mainly just paying rent.
The hotel paid me less than $20K and forced me to resign and agree to never apply for work with them again because of the lawsuit. My lawyer assured me that future potential employers wouldn't be able to discriminate against me as a result of that case. I feel my lawyer mislead me. I never should have sued.
WILLING TO WORK
I've had a job and been a responsible member of society since I was 16 scooping ice cream at Baskin Robbins, and paying my way through community college, where I attended in 1995. Affirmative Action was in full swing at this time and this was the first time I felt discriminated against by the system. I made about 17k that year barely getting by but in order to get financial aid for school, I had to have made 16.5k or less, so I didn't qualify and eventually dropped out because I simply couldn't pay.
That was 20 years ago! ...And I'm still struggling, but I haven't quit. I was forced to swallow my pride and accept government assistance. I'm now living on General Relief and Food Stamps, desperately trying to find a job. Every company out in Los Angeles has a high percentage of latinos (many of which do not even speak English) working as are other races. However, I feel that in Los Angeles there's some serious racism happening towards white people.
People claim that latinos are the only people who would accept lower paying jobs, but this is simply not true. The Latinos who took those jobs years ago when the majority of others wouldn't, are in all the hiring positions of power and management now. So guess who they're hiring, all of their friends and family. Every hotel, restaurant, bar, or service oriented position that I interview for, about 90% of the staff is Latino or women. I've seen it with my own eyes. The claim that there's no such thing as a poor white person is ludicrous.
WHITE MALE SYNDROME
My parents didn't raise me with a racist bone in my body. I speak perfect English but I can't seem to get a job in my own country! I'm a talented Mixologist and Bartender. However most of the bars in LA only hire women. Now, I know that I happen to work in an industry that caters to women.
I did not realize that there was so much racism and sexism in the service industry when I began....and now I want out. I want to start over but I don't know how or where to begin. There are scholarship funds available for almost every race or creed of people on this planet except for the "White American Scholarship Fund"...that doesn't exist...or the "American-American Born and Raised Here Scholarship Fund"...that does't exist either and if a white person such as myself even brings that point up, we get labeled a racist.
I feel that Affirmative Action is still being used in Los Angeles. Many of the requirements for jobs in LA state that you have to be bilingual and know Spanish, just to get a job in our own country, but these people aren't required to learn English in order to get a job here in the USA?!
I have no one to talk to about this because no one can relate or even has the capacity to even try to understand. I feel lost and thought I'd write you. Any advice you can offer would be sincerely appreciated.
----
First Comment from Paul A:
I must admit that I do not feel too much sympathy for Mr. Fraser. I have seen too much of what he describes, and I believe that his tale is accurate. But I think he is investing more in whining about his problem than coming up with solutions. I too worked in the restaurant business, but decided to get out before getting too old. 40 years old is not what people want to look at when they go out. 20 is more like it. He should have known that. Also, if he grew up ion LA, he should have known that Spanish is highly desirable. If he didn't bother to learn it, oh well. I did, and now half my customers speak Spanish.
The fact is that in America, whining about discrimination and fairness are luxuries that accord to race. Many folks of different ethnicities do not actually have the extra five percent to offer that will get them the advantage that helps them succeed. So they want set-asides, hand-outs, and quotas to help them get a decent living.
Whites do not have those helps available to them. Nor do they need it. They have the extra 5 percent. If you put in 5 percent more effort than the other guy, you will succeed. We have proven it. It is generally the white race that invented the computer, airplane, automobile, agricultural machinery, electronics, air conditioning, indoor plumbing, architecture, power plants, etc. And it is generally the white race that keeps these things in operation, as well. The white folks who did those things worked very hard. They also did it on spec; not knowing if they would be successful or whether they would waste their time and efforts. They did it anyway.
The white folks who chose not to do those things drifted to Appalachia and similar environs, where they focused on acquiring pick-ups propped up on cinder blocks, investing in alcoholism as a hobby, and impregnating their sisters. You can see how that worked out.
It is not white privilege that makes whites successful, it is effort. Vincent must make the effort. He'd better quit whining because whining won't change his situation. Other races won't care, and other whites are too busy fighting their own battles to worry about a guy who refuses to measure up. He has a choice. Make a plan, put in the effort, and see what he gets a year from now, or sit back, feel sorry for himself, and complain, then see what he gets a year from now.
He should listen to Al Thompson. His advice is pretty good. The only comment on that is to say that if California had not been "stolen" from Mexico, it'd be just like Baja California is today, and what Mexicans we had would be trying to get into the other States.
We have to deal with what is, not what we wish could be. So get off your butt and get busy.
-