And it’s admitting to the very social economic racism designed for poverty still adamant in our culture today to refer to a group of people as ‘food workers’
I mean, this is simply stating a fact, that about 20% of food labor are undocumented immigrants. It doesn't mean that's all they do or that only undocumented workers are food workers.
I think their argument just needs to be rephrased a bit. An English teacher would put an "awk" on that one.
"By referring to a population as food workers, we're reinforcing a culture of class warfare still prevalent today. Illegal immigrants will never break free of poverty in this system designed to keep them economically oppressed, but incentivized enough to keep performing the job our society needs."
By referring to a population as food workers, we’re reinforcing a culture of class warfare still prevalent today.
Indeed! We shall hence forth refer to them as sustenance craftspeople. Perhaps even alimentation artisan. That will make everything better!
IOW, I got that I just think that the wording betrayed the ridiculousness of the argument. Not to mention an acceptance of the systemic bias against people who do this work. Fuck that. Food is good! Workers are good!
It's not just awkward, it's flat out incorrect in it's characterization of the post.
The post said "food workers" and included the statement that 20% of them are illegal immigrants. That means most food workers are not illegal immigrants.
Further it made no implication that the only jobs illegal immigrants are doing is in the food industry. So it doesn't imply a single purpose for that group of people either.
There's no whiff of declaring an "if and only if" sort of relation.
Could complain that we seem to be so cool with sub-legal labor class to let the industry skirt labor laws in the name of "affordability", but griping about "food workers" is asinine.
Referring to people who work with food as food workers is not racist. They did not "call" illegal immigrants food workers, they said of the food workers, about 20% happen to be illegal immigrants.
Further, it made no statement suggesting that's all that illegal immigrants do.
There's no ethnic/racist meaning in saying that the food industry is in no small part upheld by illegal immigrants.
Now you could say it's screwed up that we've baked into things the assumption of a sub-legal labor class for the purpose of affordability, implicitly to skirt labor laws. However calling people who work to facilitate food "food workers" is so far away from the problem, particularly when it makes no assertion that there's only one race doing the job nor an assertion that's all that ethnicity does...