I don’t recall my parents ever asking if I had McDonald’s money but I would hear some variation of, “Do you have money for that?” We couldn’t afford to eat out all that often but once in a while if my sister and I asked for something we actually got it. It’s weird, but my parents actually asked my sister and I what we wanted from time to time. Looking back I don’t think we had that much input but at least we had the illusion of choice.
You’re combining two different arguments:
- Because the PR department explicitly includes POC in their advertising campaigns, you’re suggesting McDonald’s is a black thing. That doesn’t follow: it simply means they’re making an effort not to advertise only to white people. Googling “McDonald’s Ads” shows plenty of white faces and white bodies; in the first hit, there are a lot of famous people, and I don’t think any of them are nonwhite (there are a few people in shadows and I had trouble making out their complexion). (Also, “are proud to say it”? Why the hell wouldn’t they be proud to say it, and how is that even relevant?)
- Because a graph shows slightly more black people choose McDonalds than white people, you say it’s a black thing. That also doesn’t follow: again, there are plenty of white people who go to McDonald’s, too. The majority of people who go to McDonald’s in the US are white. It’s quite a stretch to say that a 4 percentage point difference is enough to label a restaurant as a race-based thing.
Is Cracker Barrel a white thing? I’ve literally never been to one, so I can’t say. But if the demographics are only 4 percentage points off the demographics of society as a whole, I certainly wouldn’t make that judgment.
Actually, we did, on occasion.
Not far from my house was one of the original 1950s McDonald’s, complete with real “golden arches” and no indoor area (there were a couple of hard, round seats outside, but you were expected to eat in your car.) It stayed that way until the mid-1970s, when they converted it into a pretty standard indoor seating McDonald’s. I have to admit that I still miss the original.
My mother still goes to McDonald’s for the chicken wrap. She’s always keen for a bargain. If we come to visit, she’ll suggest we go there.
The graph is working now and it’s 20% Asian, 21% White, 24% Hispanic and 25% Black. That doesn’t sound like a “Black thing” to me.
The graph also just says what it says, “This is how many people from each race picked McDs”, and makes no attempt to add further context. For example, since Asians and Whites have higher average incomes, they may live in areas with more choices and have more reason to say “Actually, I like Jimmy Johns” or Panerra or Chipolte or whatever. That doesn’t make McDs a black thing, though.
OMG yes. I have not been in a Cracker Barrel that I remember, but there have been numerous controversies involving discrimination based on sexual orientation and race.
ETA: https://www.mashed.com/37348/secrets-cracker-barrel-doesnt-want-know/
Or McDougal’s.
Not meaning to hijack this topic, but Pancho’s was regular treat for me, the then wife and our two kids. Funny that there was a McDonalds just across the street. We hardly ever went there (McD’s).
White and never heard of McDonald’s money until this thread.
“Micky D’s” on the other hand … I thought that was a common nickname? I’m trying to remember when or where I first heard it, and I can’t. But my lily-white Midwestern ex call McDonald’s by that name all the time.
That’s what I usually call it. I picked that up in the 70s from a high school classmate who always used that name. I have no idea how common it is, but nobody has ever asked “What the hell is McDougal’s?” when I say it. Maybe it’s obvious from context.
I’ve heard “Mickey D’s” frequently, but rarely use it myself. I’ve never heard “MacAdoo’s” before. I wonder if these nicknames are regional.
Nope, never heard of it. I’d usually just get “not today”. McDonalds was a “treat thing” when I was little.
That’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard of. If it’s anything, it’s a “kid thing”.
Same here, only grew up white in the 80s. My aunt would give me and my cousins little booklets of them at Xmas, and we’d all be ecstatic. “Mommy, now you HAVE to take me to McDonalds!” I think I also got them for Halloween once or twice.
Probably nothing. But maybe she couldn’t afford it: either couldn’t afford it in money, or couldn’t afford it in time.
Maybe getting you into/to the orchestra itself was as much as she could manage.
Never heard of McDonald’s money, and don’t remember thinking of McDonald’s as a special option over any other fast food chain. But there weren’t any especially nearby instances of any brand of FF chain when I was a kid. (And my favorite was KFC.)
I do distinctly remember the first time I ever went to McDonald’s, though–the Happy Meal came in a plastic spaceship instead of a cardboard box.
Never heard it. I am probably too old and too white.
The thing is, when I was a little kid McDonald’s was the cheapest option out there. I think the burgers were 15 cents. In other places they cost as much as 45 cents! (But that was with cheese. I think.) So if I had asked to go to McDonald’s, which I wouldn’t have, I could probably have found the McDonald’s money in the couch or on the floor of the car.
When I got a little older we moved to a place that didn’t even have a McDonald’s. It did have a Pizza Hut but everything else was local. No chains. And I mean, not just food. You couldn’t even rent a car to drive somewhere. You could rent a car but you had to bring it back there. No Avis no Hertz. Oh, there was a Dairy Queen so I guess that counts as a chain.
But this is also my first time hearing about Black Twitter.
So when I saw the OP my first thought was that this had something to do with the McD’s Monopoly game.
Just so we’re clear, I’m pretty sure this is not a phrase unique to McDonald’s. It could be for any unnecessary expense. Such as…
How about some new clothes? vs Do you have new clothes money? (because I don’t)
How about we start using fabric softener? vs Do you have fabric softener softener money? (because I don’t)
How about we order out tonight? vs Do you have orderin’ out money? (because I don’t)
How about a Ferrari? vs Do you have Ferrari money? (because I don’t)
Someone proposes an unnecessary expense, with the implicit suggestion that the person being “proposed” to pay for it (perhaps within the framework of a preexisting relationship in which it is standard for the person being proposed to to do so, as in the case of a parent or the sole income-earning spouse) and the… “proposee,” let’s call them, objects obliquely not by saying no, but by shifting the burden of payment on to the proposer, making it clear that’s the only way it’s going to happen. Because it’s not to say they wouldn’t mind being treated to such a thing, it’s just that they don’t see the expense as being worth paying for themself.
It’s nothing to do with McDonald’s specifically, but rather the “money” part, with any unnecessary proposed expense substitutable for McDonald’s.
When I was a kid the 15 cent burgers were a great deal. I’d go to Winky’s though, because they had a “fixings bar”. I’d get a 15 cent burger, then load it with a huge pile of pickles. I’d eat the pickles as an appetizer, then eat the burger, and I’d be stuffed.
That’s very generous of you, but I knew her and you didn’t. This was but one of many chances for me to have a social life that she shot down. We could have gone and just gotten cokes. I could have gotten a ride with another parent. She knew darn well that I was desperately lonely in a community with no kids, and she did virtually nothing to help me alleviate that.
That’s fair.
White, never heard it.
I only heard “McDonald’s” money growing up. But maybe it’s because I didn’t ask for much of anything else.
Well, not like that, but yeah, sometimes my parents said yes, as long as it had been a little while since the last time we ate fast food. We’d usually ask in the car, though, which was the most likely chance we’d have to actually go. We didn’t tend to go back into town after we got home.
My parents didn’t make as much money as the other families around, but they went out of their way to keep us kids from realizing that. Still, it was enough money that going to McDonald’s every once in a while wasn’t a big deal.
The funny thing is that my initial reaction to reading your OP was to think you were richer, because I assumed it meant that you might actually have McDonald’s money–from getting an allowance. We never got one.