Michigan Journal of Race and Law Volume 14 2008 Is a Burrito a Sandwich? Exploring Race, Class, and Culture in Contracts Marjorie Florestal University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl Part of the Contracts Commons, Courts Commons, and the Law and Race Commons Recommended Citation Marjorie Florestal, Is a Burrito a Sandwich? Exploring Race, Class, and Culture in Contracts, 14 MICH. J. RACE & L. 1 (2008). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl/vol14/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Journal of Race and Law by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. IS A BURRITO A SANDWICH? EXPLORING RACE, CLASS, AND CULTURE IN CONTRACTS Madorie Florestal* A superior court in Worcester, Massachusetts, recently determined that a burrito is not a sandwich. Surprisingly, the decision sparked a firestorm of media attention. Worcester, Massachusetts, is hardly the pinnacle of the culinary arts-so why all the interest in the musings of one lone judge on the nature of burtos and sandwiches? Closer inspection revealed the allure of this otherwise peculiar case: Potentially thousands of dollars turned on the interpretation of a single word in a single clause of a commercial contract. Judge Locke based his decision on