posted
In another thread, I mentioned my first ever pedicure, and some personal thoughts I had about it. There was another thing about the experience that I felt deserved its own thread.
The nail salon I went to yesterday was owned and run by a Vietnamese woman named Annie. All of the employees of the salon (and I was surprised to see that half of them were men) were Asian, the majority of them also Vietnamese. All of the clients that were having manicures and pedicures were Caucasian, at least in the hour and a half that I was there. I was more than a little uncomfortable to be seated on a chair that could be described as a throne, alongside three other Caucasian women while four Asian men and women were seated on small stools in front of us, massaging, trimming and polishing our feet.
I had trouble sleeping last night, and was thinking about my experience. I thought of how I would feel if my job required me to handle other people’s feet all the time. Would I begin to resent my clients or would I be grateful to have a job at all?
To be fair, the first job I held after my husband left me was as a nurse’s aid at a long term care facility, and I dealt with far worse things than toe-jam, but that was a very different type of service. I also have experience in a medical laboratory, where I’ve had to handle human specimens including blood, urine, sputum, wound exudates, vomit and stool, and that never bothered me either. And by the time Annie touched my feet at all, they’d been soaking for at least ten minutes so were clean, and she wore gloves.
So why am I so disturbed by the idea of an Asian man or woman being paid to pamper my feet? Of course, in any type of personal service like this, there is a bit of a class issue. There are the women (and I’m sure some men) who have the money and the leisure to spend an hour or more on something just for themselves versus those who just don’t have that luxury. Am I reading more into it than that and trying to make a race issue where none exists? Am I being overly sensitive?
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
It's called limosine liberal guilt. The writer of The Princess Bride does a hilarious send-up of his wife in the prologue for just that phenomonon - she is educated, thoughtful, well enough off to hire a maid, and much too liberal to be comfortable with the idea. She's constantly making maids uncomfortable because follows them around reassuring them she is not exploiting them.
I don't really have an answer - I can understand why it made you uncomfortable. We like to sympathize with the underdog, and it sucks to discover you've switched sides without any intention of doing so, and even worse, it's good to be king.
On the other hand, I think that collective guilt is an illusion, along with collective nobility. You can't change history and you can only be accountable for your own actions. The shop will be there whether you patron it or not, and if you're looking for another level to worry about, it is why aren't the local businesses in Hawaii more often owned and run by the local Hawaiians?
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
Many nail salons are run by Asian immigrants. You could look at it as you are supporting them in their entreprenurial dreams.
But I know exactly how you feel. I get massages occasionally. There is a medical reason for it, in that if my shoulder muscles knot up too badly it leads to headaches and eventually migraines.
It isn't like I need a total physical therapy reginmen and it is easier to just pay for the occasional massage on my own than to deal with doctors and insurance etc.
However the place I go that does massages, is staffed primarly by Eastern European women that worked as professional physical therapists in their own countries and now are reduced to massage therapists because the license for a masssuse is much easier to obtain (here in the US). The question is, is the owner of the place actually victimizing these women or not? I've debated and I'm not sure.
To assuage my conscience a bit, I tip well. But asside from not actually getting the massage that's about all I can do.
posted
Just remember this, those people that do the things they do don't do so because they were forced to. They are doing it because thats what they want to do to make money. If it honestly bothered them so much to render that service to people they always have the option to seek other employment. Now if you enslaved a bunch of asians so they could do pedicure work, well shame on you.
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posted
there's also a nice send up of this in, I think, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish where a woman, portrayed very much like a prostitute, gets paid to tell people it's ok to be rich.
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
I agree with the idea that you are supporting their entrepreneurship. They came here with a dream to own a business, CHOSE what business they wanted to offer, and are probably enjoying it all the way to the bank.
The only way it would be wrong would be if they were "slave labor" and not being paid for their services. They are getting what they want (money) for what you enjoy. The great thing about America is that if they ever DID feel degraded by this, they could change to a different type of business.
One thing I've always wondered. Every Asian business I have done business with in our city (as a customer) has ONLY Asian employees. I mean -- do they have an unwritten code about only hiring their own? Most other businesses are required by law to diversify their employement staff.
I don't have anything against it -- I always just thought it was curious.
posted
I'm not so sure if we can assume that all these workers want to be where they are. Doing so would be too naive, imho. They are, however, in the position they are, and they need work that we provide.
posted
Farmgirl I could be wrong, but I think that it is only "large" businesses that are subject to diverstity rules. "Small" businesses which are defined as under X number of people (I can't remember the number but it is like 50 or 100 employees and may vary by state) don't have to meet the same criteria.
posted
and Phanto, most Asians are actually excluded from minority status because they work their butts off and do own so many businesses that the "white man" has felt threatened.
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