Halito! I ran across a news story about a 19 year old waitress in Tennessee surprised by a note left upon a Red Lobster Restaurant receipt, by her customers (a Caucasian man and woman). The receipt bore the written words “none” in the tip line, followed by “N*gger”. The waitress took a picture of the slur; posted it online to her Face Book Page and it went viral, even on internet news outlets. The posted receipt and message took in commentary from a wide swath of people on Face Book and internet news venues. A great number of comments criticized the posting as not being news, telling her to get over it, accusing her of faking the receipt (which by the way bore a credit card number and signature) and accused her of trying to fan the flames of racism. Other comments included reprimands on posting the receipt with the couple’s credit card number and signature ( it seems blaming the victim is big in America). What I’d like to say to all of that, is; What this couple did is no different than what other people do when committing heinous hate crimes in the New Jim Crow Era and that is to employ an insidious, barely perceptible, naked to the eye crime, an almost invisible type of racism that is to the victim, no less deeply felt than a fist to the gut. This type of racism induces an intense pain, deep, cutting, depressing, demeaning, stress-inducing and indefensible helplessness in victims. Other racists (almost always) view these types of crimes as non-threatening, non-harmful interactions because they are very hard to prove in 3-dimensional physical reality. So, they will continue employing this technique until it becomes harder due to public awareness, pressure, confrontation or legal deterrent. Not that withholding a tip to a poverty stricken low-wage earner is the worse thing anyone can do to a person. It is decidedly inconvenient, because many waitresses are hired with the promise that their low-wage pay-scale will be remedied by the volume of tips shared with Cooks and Busboys). So, stiffing a waitress, may meaning stiffing everyone involved in the preparation of your meal and those cleaning up behind you. The reality is that inscribing a racial epitaph on the receipt was a low blow and a personal mean-spirited attack upon the waitress/server, which is not usually experienced by non-Black wait-staff. Added stress comes for the fact that the receipt will be seen by more than the waitress…sure to be seen (at minimum) by the manager, corporate accounting staff, Financial Director and auditor associated with Red Lobster. Waitresses usually have identifying names or codes entered on their particular receipts so that their tips can be tracked, compared and tallied for local, state and Federal income tax purposes. The young waitress knew that she was required by the rules of employee conduct to turn that receipt over to management and that it would become a piece of evidence lost among piles of paperwork turned over daily, weekly or monthly to the chain of command, which was also needed to support her grievance or claim of on the job harassment. It is surely evidence of a hate crime committed against her. For all those reasons, it is my feeling that she was well within her rights to keep of copy of the Hateful offense. Just as if someone had spray-painted hate-filled graffiti on the fence in her yard, she needed to take a picture of it as proof for insurance purposes.It did not appear that her posting was malicious (as in purposely exposing private information), because the young lady’s focus was upon the hateful racist slur. There was no onus on the young waitress to protect the privacy of perpetrators of crimes against her, especially when so many others were bound to see the message. This particular hate crime was destined to pass over the desks of many people or come into different departments for processing, in addition to accounting for the perpetrator’s contribution to the victim’s employers’ financial bottom-line. That said, victims of crime (including Hate Crimes) do not owe an allegiance of privacy to perpetrators of crimes against them and particularly when the evidence can help Police and Federal Investigators track down culprits who often operate in the cruel cowardice of anonymity. It seems to me that the waitress and/or Red Lobster can initiate action against the perpetrators of hate-crimes against wait-staff. There are a few things that can be done to protect wait-staff, fast-food workers and others against the barrage of angry, hateful customers that (mostly young) people encounter on a daily (or nightly) basis. I am responding mostly as a mother whose daughter (once upon a time, many years ago) was busy working in a fast-food restaurant with customers, when an irate woman walked into her facility and began shouting obscenities at the young people working and ultimately threw something across the counter hitting my daughter who was pregnant at the time. I applaud the staff who took quick action to follow the woman outside and write down her license-plate number. Although I don’t recommend that anybody do this (I was horrified hearing it), those young folks followed that car so they could tell the police which direction it went in. 19 year olds, do not need to “get over” racism. It is happening to them right now! If anything they need to be helped to understand why they suffering from racial discrimination and degradation right now, today, if they were born here in the United States. Yet, White People are telling them to go back to Africa! They don’t have any experience or historical memory of racism as it happened in the past, but they are being treated as extensions of the past because of their color. When they complain, most hear that they are playing some kind of “race card.” It’s senseless and circular racist irrationality. Teenagers (for the most part) are very surprised when people don’t act normal. They don’t know that you are the Devil, unless you say that is who you are. Teenagers think everybody likes them and when they find out the truth (that the world hates Black folks) it deflates them. Then, they don’t know what to do with their anger and confusion over why people hate them for nothing more than the color of their skin. And, I think a lot of their naïveté is our fault. Most of us don’t tell our kids about all the people who hate them. I am duty bound to change that. Perhaps on another occasion, we can tackle the on-going problem of Black People encountering Racist and/or discriminatory Waiters, Waitresses, Cashiers, Clerks, Attendants and attendants. Together we can change the paradigm. Sincerely, Angela Molette (Tuscaloosa Ohoyo) Black Warrior Woman
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 01:01:13 +0000
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