The layers of privilege and racialization in the service industry through “front of the house” and “back of the house” positions illustrate how the privileged maintain their status by economic means of oppression. I found the concept of the racial “quadrangle” was really interesting, especially in the way that it took Kim’s concept of racial triangulation and illustrated through Marlina and Luis Fernando’s stories how by economically devaluing migrants and Latino workers, the industry continuously locks these groups into association of inferiority and foreignness.

Dr. Alexander’s insight on “whiteness” or “American-ness” personally had struck a chord with me. As a minority, I have grown up in a primarily South-Asian community that would subconsciously associate Americanness with being white- from experiences at school and local restaurants/businesses I was exposed to the segregation of lighter-skinned, English speaking, “Indian American” or “American” individuals and the “fresh-off-the-boat” individuals (Several classmates and I would identify as “Indian-American” which separated us from the less desirable “FOB” or “immigrant” identity, but also established that we indeed were not white).

As the reading elaborate, in the restaurant business, jobs with competing salaries and respect tend to be occupied by whites, or the the “front of the house” folks—by determining promotions based on “accents,” or recruiting for front-end positions based on photographs, the service industry obscures those who are not “American” enough from moving up the ladder and making themselves visible—in the context of racism, this indeed contributes to latino’s and migrants’ social positions in the quadrangle.