Recently after the shameful incident which took place in a McDonalds restaurant in Pune, there have protests going on all social networking websites against the franchise. I have read hash tags like #McDonaldsmustlearn, and comments where people have said, ‘If McDonald’s is going to keep this attitude then they should stay in America only.’
Now the doubt which I have in my mind is, was it the fault of the franchise in what happened that day or someone else’s, someone much bigger than the franchise?
According to me the second possibility is a more likely answer. It’s ‘us’ who did this and not McDonalds.
Though he was a staff of McDonalds who pushed the poor kid out of the restaurant, it’s not right to blame the franchise for this. We have contributed a fair share in that incident as well, maybe not directly but indirectly we have.
Everyone is unhappy with what the staff said, when the women accompanying the child tried to defend that kid. His reply to the protest was, “such people are not allowed in the restaurant.” We are furious to such an extent that it even led to the shutting down of that particular outlet. So, is this our victory? Is this what we really wanted to achieve? Is this the solution we were looking for?
No, it’s not.
Why are we putting the entire blame on the American franchise rather than understanding the fact that it is the Indian mentality which is the villain here. Higher authorities of McDonalds never directed their staff to discriminate people on their getups and appearances. This ideology is a result of our own mindset. We are taught from the beginning itself to discriminate on the basis of everything and anything, be it caste, color, religion, sect, or status. You may feel otherwise, it is not that we were explicitly told to discriminate but the actions of the people around us said it loud and clear.
In America, McDonalds is looked upon as a place where everyone can enjoy a meal at cheap rates. It is in India where people see it as the ‘cool’ thing and believe that it is a place which only the rich can enjoy. This does not apply only to McDonalds, all American fast food franchises are being looked through the same lens. Being the ‘cool’ thing, a decent appearance becomes a mandate in our society. If you look poor, then you are not allowed. And this is how it works in India.
Even though there was a woman accompanying the child, who was indeed going to pay for the Fanta Float which the kid wanted, the staff couldn’t stand the idea of a poor kid standing in the ‘high-class restaurant’. This shows how deeply the idea of segregating the society on the basis of appearance is inflicted in our minds.
There are many layers in our society and it is really hard to judge which one is dominating which. On one side, I see a noble woman who very kindly obliges to the request of a poor boy standing outside the McDonalds outlet when he sees her walking out of the restaurant with Coke Float in hand. Then there is a man who is not willing to serve a boy just because he looks poor, in spite of the fact that it’s his job to serve every paying customer. And the third, us, who just love shifting the blame on others instead of looking inside ourselves.
What happened in McDonalds can happen again, shutting down an outlet is not the complete solution but correcting ourselves can be.
