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<h1 class="gmail-page-header">Over Language: Telemundo Reviles Latino Restaurateur as Race Traitor </h1>
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<span rel="sioc:has_creator">By <span class="gmail-source"><a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/author/garvin-oliver" title="View user profile." class="gmail-username">Garvin Oliver</a> and <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/author/ken-oliver" title="View user profile." class="gmail-username">Ken Oliver</a></span> | June 8, 2018 12:27 PM EDT</span> </div>
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<div class="gmail-field-item"><div id="gmail-imkadwrap1" style="width:100%" align="center"></div><p>A
well-known Las Vegas restaurant, Jamms Breakfast and Lunch Diner, is
getting lambasted by Telemundo for a new work rule that simply prohibits
its employees from speaking Spanish in front of customers who don’t
speak Spanish.</p>
<div id="gmail-imkadwrap2" style="width:100%" align="center"></div><p>In
response to what probably the vast majority of Americans would consider
an entirely reasonable customer service language policy, Telemundo host
María Celeste Arrarás expressed her indignation that the rule was
implemented by<em> a Latino owner no less</em>.</p>
<div id="gmail-imkadwrap3" style="width:100%" align="center"></div><p>In a report on her afternoon show <em>Al Rojo Vivo</em>,
Arrarás was also quick to completely mischaracterize the rule as one
that impedes what language customers can use while at the restaurant, in
addition to calling on <strong><a href="http://www.jammsrestaurant.com/">Jamms</a></strong>’ co-owner Antonio Gamboa to change the rule.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p><div class="gmail-video-filter embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"></div><p></p>
<p> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>MARÍA CELESTE ARRARÁS, HOST, AL ROJO VIVO, TELEMUNDO: <strong>Let's hope the owner of the restaurant reconsiders his position</strong>.
Many Latino customers patronize his establishment, and have all the
right in the world to communicate with the employees in Spanish, or in
whatever language they desire to.</p>
</blockquote>
<div id="gmail-imkadwrap4" style="width:100%" align="center"><div id="gmail-imkIncontent1" style="width:100%"><div style="display:inline" id="gmail-div_utif_imkIncontent1"></div></div></div><p>Both
Arrarás’s introduction to the report on the controversy, as well as her
concluding commentary, were actually belied by facts within the report
itself. As Jamms’ co-owner Antonio Gamboa himself told Telemundo
reporter Michelle Rodríguez, the restaurant’s new language policy was
instituted only after a non-Spanish speaking customer at the restaurant
mistakenly believed he was being verbally disparaged by a Jamms’
employee in Spanish.</p>
<div id="gmail-imkadwrap5" style="width:100%" align="center"></div><p>As
Gamboa explained, contrary to the customer’s assumption, the employees
were not disparaging the customer, but as a result management decided to
make an employee language policy change in order to avoid such
situations in the future. Gamboa specifically tells Telemundo that “We
made the decision, and told them not to speak Spanish when they have
customers in front of them who do not speak Spanish.”</p>
<p><strong>In reality, the restaurant’s rule was born not out of an ethos of discrimination, but one of inclusion</strong>:
to be more inclusive, welcoming, and mindful of all of the restaurant’s
customer base. However, Arrarás & Co. shape-shifted the facts of
the matter in order to present it as some kind of monstrous
anti-Hispanic, Spanish speaking ban for everyone.</p>
<div id="gmail-imkadwrap6" style="width:100%" align="center"></div><p>In
comments to Rodríguez, another restaurant employee also testified to
experiencing no discrimination in the establishment, in which 75% of the
employees are Latino. In addition, the reporter noted Jamms also has a
commendable track record as a sponsor of cultural events in the area’s
Hispanic community.</p>
<div id="gmail-imkadwrap7" style="width:100%" align="center"><div id="gmail-imkIncontent2vid"><div id="gmail-spotx_content_container_43944" style="height:1px;width:1px;overflow:hidden;display:block;opacity:0"></div></div><div id="gmail-imkIncontent2" style="width:100%"><div style="display:inline" id="gmail-div_utif_imkIncontent2"></div></div></div><p>As
indicated, at the end of the segment Arrarás calls on the restaurant
owner to change the rule and declares that Hispanics “have all the right
in the world to communicate with the employees in Spanish or in
whatever language they desire to.” She is oblivious to the fact that the
rule is only enforceable on the employees, as in any other business.
Nowhere in the wording does the rule ban customers from speaking
whatever language they please.</p>
<div id="gmail-imkadwrap8" style="width:100%" align="center"></div><p><strong>The
episode is illustrative of the kind of divisive, erroneous and
irresponsible racial grievance-based reporting that appears way too
often in the national Hispanic media</strong>. When the perpetrator of
the alleged anti-Hispanic act is Latino, as in this case, the “race
traitor” angle is also added for good measure.</p>
<div id="gmail-imkadwrap9" style="width:100%" align="center"></div><p>Below is the complete transcript of the above-referenced report, as aired during the May 30, 2018 edition of Telemundo’s <em>Al Rojo Vivo</em>, con María Celeste Arrarás.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>MARIA CELESTE ARRARÁS, HOST, AL ROJO VIVO, TELEMUNDO: A restaurant
in Las Vegas is making headlines after placing a sign forbidding its
employees to speak Spanish in front of customers. <strong>And listen to this: the owner is Latino</strong>. Michelle Rodríguez has the controversy, and the owner's comments.</p>
<p>UNIDENTIFIED MALE CLIENT: This restaurant is very close to my house. We have eaten several times, but this will be the last.</p>
<p>MICHELLE RODRÍGUEZ, REPORTER, TELEMUNDO: This announcement, which
spread like a wildfire on social media, is causing outrage among the
Hispanic community. It is a note in English that tells the employees of a
restaurant that they cannot speak Spanish while they are around
customers. It was placed in the employee break room of the Jamms
Restaurant, near Charleston and Rainbow.</p>
<p>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE CLIENT: It is definitely very sad because we
continue promoting racism, discrimination, class differences and
everything, and I think we are free to speak what we want to speak.</p>
<p>RODRIGUEZ: Nevertheless, one of the owners of this restaurant, who
by the way is a Hispanic man, defends the policy, assuring that it is so
that customers who do not speak Spanish do not feel isolated or
insulted.</p>
<p>ANTONIO GAMBOA, CO-OWNER, JAMMS RESTAURANT: What happened was that
there was a customer at the bar and one of our employees was speaking
Spanish with another employee. The customer felt bad, like offended,
thinking that they were talking about him. The employees were never
talking about the customer, they were simply just talking amongst
themselves. <strong>We made the decision, and told them not to speak Spanish when they have customers in front of them who do not speak Spanish</strong>.</p>
<p>RODRÍGUEZ: To carry out the order, they put a sign on a wall in the
back of the restaurant. It is believed that it was an employee who
posted it on social media, which has affected the restaurant.</p>
<p>MARCO GAMBOA, EMPLOYEE, JAMMS RESTAURANT: And I think it is a
misunderstanding. That someone who wanted to play a joke, or I don’t
know. With the experience I have working in this place, I have never
seen or felt discriminated against.</p>
<p>RODRÍGUEZ: Additionally, this restaurant has been a sponsor of various Hispanic events.</p>
<p>ARRARÁS: Well,<strong> let's hope the owner of the restaurant reconsiders his position</strong>.
Many Latino customers patronize his establishment, and have all the
right in the world to communicate with the employees in Spanish, or in
whatever language they desire to.</p>
</blockquote>
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<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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