Pullout Aug 7, 2013 at 4:00 am

Juanita Porter, Cook/cashier/etc., Taco Bell, Shoreline

Juanita Porter doesn’t want to be a pencil-pushing person. Jennifer Richard

Comments

1
16 years in the fast food industry and i'm supposed to feel sorry for her? i get that it's a shitty job but c'mon....try harder.
2
Way to ignore the real story (or, problem, is more like it) here, Brendan.
3
Anybody talking shit in the comments for this article must make their own lunches and brown-bag it whenever they work. Can't have those lowlife fast food workers handling Precious' food now can we?
4
@1 who said you're supposed to feel sorry for her?

I like this article, Brendan, it's pretty inscrutable. :-)
5
Excellent.
6
"I'm 34. My dream is pretty much over."

~ No it isn't. My life didn't begin until I turned 36, quit my lame ass job, started a company and started living. You are a smart girl...you'll go far....you just need a dream worth having. :)
7
I really enjoyed that y'all interviewed her. It made me very happy to see you highlighted someone working in fast food especially at a time when the clear need for a higher wage is more obvious than ever.

-a kid
8
Don't know what caused me to read an interview about a worker in the fast food industry.. I guess that photo of Juanita Porter just caught my attention. Nice find Brendan! Good story - a piece of real life.
9
@3, yes, as a matter of fact i do make my own lunch every day. i avoid fast food because it's fucking gross, not because the people making it are fucking gross. as for juanita, it sounds like she's pretty content where she's at. not really trying to get a better lot in life. that's fine...but why strike then? are you pissed at where you are or not? if so, then do something meaningful about it.
10
I love this. You should do more interviews with people who are just working their various jobs: DMV workers, lab technicians, shop clerks, etc.

Everyone always wants to interview artists and musicians and authors and CEOs, all of which have been done so much the interviews have become boring.
11
I'm thoroughly in the "I like it" camp. Great piece. People in the service industry have stories worth telling, too. Plus, that photo of Juanita is simply radiant. Queen Latifah would totes play her in a biopic.
12
Pretty sad.

But at least she works and has a fairly positive attitude rather than sitting home collecting a check and blaming other people for her problems. "The my life is over at 34" kinda struck me though. She should have plenty of life left, expesially if she cut down on the nachobell grandes and oreo cheesecake.

With the experience she has she really should try to jump the gap into fast food management.

But I steer clear of fast food, that shit is straight up poison. Even worse some places, like LA County are now allowing EBT to be spent on fast food. Caring about the health of the citizens indeed.

This article reminds me that we really need to have people learn more about nutrition.
13
@1 I don't think you're supposed to feel sorry for her. She says she likes her job. It's right there in the first paragraph. But liking the job doesn't mean customers aren't assholes.
14
She likes her job and she sure as hell deserves to be paid a fair wage with benefits. As do we all.
15
"Porter lives in Tukwila with three teenagers"

And she's only 34! She's quite the high achiever isn't she!

Where are their daddies or is that a rude question?
16
How about a raise if she gets her tubes tied?
17
We live in a country of children, raised on years of You Can Do Anything movies. The flip side of the perpetual hyper-boosting of self esteem in every children's medium is the eradication of sympathy for anybody who doesn't pull themselves up by their bootstraps in spite of ridiculous odds.

It's not a coincidence that all this self-esteem you-can-do-anything crap is mass-produced by huge corporations that don't think workers should have any rights. They condition the public to blame the victim and feel great about it.
18
Love this.
19
This reminds me of Studs Terkel.
20
@17 oh no, she did quite a lot. Apparently before even turning 20 she squirted out three fatherless sprogs. I'm sure that was close to a record in her hood.
21
" all this self-esteem you-can-do-anything crap "

What, like being a fatherless black child but growing up to be president? Crazy, I know.
22
In other news, liberals are surprised that a lifetime of shitty choices leads no where.
23
Wow, lots of hate that she has three teenagers at 34. You don't know her circumstances - lots of judgement going on. Is it the anti-breed crowd?
24
@1: Fuck off. That is all.
25
@20-22: Right, because Obama's story isn't exceptional (diction alert!) at all. Nothing like the bullshit condescension of laptop racists.

Please wait...

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