THE GREASE
TRAP
HUFFINGTON
05.12.13
KFC worker
Joseph
Barrera, 22,
poses in front
of one of the
restaurants in
Queens, N.Y.
PREVIOUS PAGE: AP PHOTO
Kentucky Fried Chicken
and the Working Poor
The Kentucky Fried Chicken where Joseph Barrera
works stands at a busy intersection in the working-class Brooklyn neighborhood where he grew up,
down the street from some auto body shops, a few
rice-and-beans joints and a White Castle. Until the
day Barrera found himself mopping up the grease
that had spewed all over the store’s basement, he
was confident that his $7.25-an-hour job represented
the beginning of a career that would lead him out of
the neighborhood and into a middle-class life.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAMON DAHLEN