We’d like to believe that when we go into a restaurant, the waitstaff will treat everyone at the table equally (which may be a good or bad thing, depending on the server), but a new survey claims that more than one-third of servers admit to providing inferior service to African-American customers, and more than half say they’ve seen other servers treating customers poorly based on race.
The study surveyed 200 restaurant servers — 86% of them identified as white — at 18 restaurant chains in North Carolina.
From the statement released by NC State:
Survey results showed that 38.5 percent of servers reported that customers’ race informed their level of service at least some of the time, often resulting in providing inferior service to African-American customers. Findings show that many servers perceive African-American customers to be impolite and/or poor tippers, suggesting that black patrons, in particular, are likely targets of servers’ self-professed discriminatory actions.
The survey also found that 52.8 percent of servers reported seeing other servers discriminate against African-American customers by giving them poor service at least some of the time. Findings also show that restaurant servers share anti-black perceptions through racist workplace discourse, indicating a considerable amount of talk about the race of their patrons. Only 10.5 percent reported never engaging in or observing racialized discourse.
“Many people believe that race is no longer a significant issue in the United States,” says the paper’s co-author. “But the fact that a third of servers admit to varying their quality of service based on customers’ race, often giving African-Americans inferior service, shows that race continues to be an issue in our society.”
Study Shows That, In Restaurants, Race Matters [NC State via Digital Journal]
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I used to have a black co-worker that would come to lunch with us occasionally, and he would never leave a tip. Not ever. It was so embarrassing, because we frequented the same places quite often. In fact, he flipped out one day because his bill was $4.99…and the waiter didn’t bring him back his penny. Not kidding, not making this up.
So, I finally confronted him about it one day, and asked why he wouldn’t tip. He told me his dad taught him black people don’t tip because they have it harder than everyone else, and waiters don’t give them as good of service. Self perpetuating problem it seems.
That is unfortunately, the common mentality.
No I’ve never seen this type of behavior from someone white. Oh no. Oh wait. I have. It’s amazing. I hear white people say all the time that “oh that person is white trash”. But when a black person does something you don’t like it’s black people do this. blah blah blah. You had one black coworker that had idiot parents and somehow that gets distributed to all black people. I wish I could tell you every dumb thing a white person has asked me about black people that they thought was true. Yet I realize that not all white people are bigots or racists. But somehow you haven’t made that same connection. Do you now see how stupid you make yourself sound? People who listen to and spread this type of garbage are STUPID. Be smart. Realize that everyone you meet is a unique person. Stereotypes are based in ignorance. You choose to keep yourself ignorant.
Where does he distribute this attitude toward all black people? He’s just telling an anecdotal story.
Would you feel better if instead of saying “I worked with someone black” he said “I worked with a piece of black trash” or “my co-worker, who was black trash”? That makes it better?
BTW, stereotypes are awful, but typically based on some kernel of truth.
And yes, I’m a minority. And yes, they piss me off. And yes, I recognize that they come from someone, which pisses me off too.
First, when dealing with a subject like this anecdotal evidence is useless. Second, the last line was “Self perpetuating problem it seems.” So every black person who is cheap is perpetuating a problem. Yet every white person who is cheap is just a cheap person. That’s my issue. And in my opinion stereotypes aren’t really indicative of reality. They are based on one groups dislike of another group and any small anecdotal story is used to perpetuate it. Blonds aren’t stupid. Women are good at math. Asians can drive, Jewish people aren’t cheap. All stereotypes that are dumb.
Oh, so you want real proof? How about a research paper on the subject?
http://www.tippingresearch.com/uploads/lynn_BW_final_draft_2.pdf
And here’s a little ditty from former NPR reporter Juan Williams
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1329241&sc=emaf
Cue the lame straw man arguments, deflections, and denial in 3… 2… 1…
I have never worked as a Server, but from talking to friends who have, I wonder if this discrepancy is somehow less true in Canada. Maybe it was the community I lived in, but the waitresses I knew never seemed to complain about any one group. Everyone generally tipped between 10% and 30%.
Personally, I tip on a scale from 5% to 35%.
5% for terrible service, given out of societal pressure.
35% for totally amazing and efficient service.
What is likely happening, as numerous comments have already addressed, is that a racial cycle is emerging. African-Americans, on average, tip less. So African-Americans, on average, are given poorer service. So African-Americans, on average, tip less. And the cycle repeats into oblivion.
My brother and I went to this one chain restaurant that’s known for hamburgers one time in this suburban area of Detroit. We had a coupon for a free burger on my birthday, which was that day. We tip well. The server was this obnoxious, spoiled brat that seemed very nervous about waiting on us. I saw and heard the servers talking and debating, our initial server apparently gave her table to another girl, that one. We told her in advance we had the deal. She came back and starting hemming and hawing, telling us that the system wasn’t working right, and if the deal didn’t go through, she would have to pay for our burger, and she was making a big scene out of it.
I got extremely irate. I asked her why she would say something like that, like I couldn’t afford to pay for the burger, or that we were running a scam? I pointed out that the deal was pretty crystal clear on the website and in the email, why was this such a problem? She started getting nervous and stammered, like she was uncomfortable with us there, and I just said, “Ok, I get it, we’re leaving, I’ll be talking to your manager.” She lied and said her manager wasn’t around, to begin with. I took note of the time and date. I went up the highway to another location of the chain that we were familiar with, and the waitress didn’t even blink. I asked her about it and she basically indicated that she couldn’t understand why that location gave me such a big deal about it, that it was easy to scan into the register.
Was that first server racist? Don’t know, but I made my feelings known to the manager and got a gift card, which I used at my usual location, and of course, tipped well! I hope that server got fired, I really do. I can understand not wanting to wait on people you suspect won’t tip well, but to treat them like dirt before even serving our drinks is ridiculous. I really enjoy putting some servers in their place because some of them can be truly obnoxious at gaming the system for tips. I had two at a certain chain Italian restaurant that ignored our group, comprised of mostly white girls and me, because the tip was already added on. I got them good too, but I stayed away for a while. There should be an article about scumbag waiters too.
I used to be part owner of a restaurant in Philadelphia. It had two floors, and servers who were “promoted” didn’t have to serve the second floor, which required carrying food up and down stairs all shift. It was commonly discussed that each and every one of them would rather work the second floor than serve black customers because they knew they wouldn’t be tipped much, if at all. That includes black servers.
We had no reports of servers providing lesser service. It was more of a case where everyone had to share equally so some servers wouldn’t suffer unfairly.
When a server or a manager would catch a customer leaving without tipping and confront them, the black customers would often say, “So what? I don’t tip. It’s not a law.”
How this well-known cultural fact gets left out of a seemingly thorough article makes it appear like reverse racism. Naughty, naughty.
Reverse racism? We had no reports of poor service. Sure you did. They were called bad tips. Did you approach every white person who tipped poorly? Or was it only the blacks? You also know that cultural fact that white people are bigots. No really it’s true. All of you are. How that wasn’t in the article is really beyond me. Tisk tisk tisk.
hyperbolic title misses the very important qualifier *IN NORTH CAROLINA*
commenter misses 200+ comments verifying trend is ubiquitous largely because way too many blacks are rude, demanding, petty, and don’t tip well or at all.
commenter misses comments showing that people that give poor service based on skin color and not prior interactions are bigots.
You know there are more than 200 posts that autism is caused by vaccines. That doesn’t make it verified. There are more than 200 posts that say 911 was an inside job but that doesn’t mean it’s verified. There are more than 200 posts that Elvis is still alive but it doesn’t mean it’s verified. I could continue but I’m hope you see the logical fallacy in your statement.
But lets say that there are more black people who are cheap. Does that mean that every black person should receive lesser service? I think that way too many people post on this thread are bigots. But I don’t take this section of the populace to represent all people.
You can say what you want. But treating ANY group of people you have never met poorly because of what someone who happens to share their, color, religion, gender etc, mean you are a bigot. Fight against your bigotry and treat all people based on their actions not the things they can’t or shouldn’t change.
Blacks are disproportionately shitty tippers and bad customers. Every black server I’ve met, and I’ve met many, says the same thing. It’s not racist, it’s the truth, and the studies quoted in this thread back it up.
Before we tear apart this article, I think it would be interesting if you could compare data from the actual theory here. What would happen if we surveyed who *actually* tipped more? I can pretty much say for certain that blacks will tip less than whites.
The biggest problem of our racial divide in America is ignoring that any problems exist. The more we say we just need to treat everyone the same, the greater the divide will be.
Simple solution here is to get rid of the tipping system. If we want everyone to be treated the same, everyone needs to pay the same amount. Why is it accepted that wages are paid for by optional tips?? For the argument that waiters will provide less service if they are not tipped, I don’t agree. There is no shortage of waiters/waitresses out there, and management can just as easily get rid of the poor performers.
I’m not going to say I’m the exception or the rule, but I tip 18% almost every time I eat out (at least 2x per week) AND I’m Indian (West indian to be exact). Coming to the 18% figure is very easy as in NYC the sales tax is almost 9%. I just double the tax amount. The only times I tip less are when I get horrid service. Recently at a Red Lobster the waitress was perhaps one of the worst I’ve ever experienced: wrong orders, appetizers coming out after main courses, forgot to give us cutlery, forgot to give me a lobster cracker, made me wait 7 minutes before getting one after I asked, brought water to the table (after being asked at the very beginning) 10 minutes before we finished eating, etc, etc. etc, salads but no dressing. I left her $3 which I thought was super generous.
West Indian people are decent, you see.
Don’t know what is up with American blacks. They have problems.
Well over 200 comments so I doubt this will even be seen, but my $.02:
I spent a number of years working in a predominantly black restaurant. By predominantly black, I mean both staff and clientele. It was truly a volume business. I can’t lie – I did well, which is why I stayed.
But I also can’t lie that the stereotype exists because of real-world experience. It’s amazing to me that people will decry “racism” on items based in fact or valid anecdote. Even if you buy the argument that it is chicken/egg and they do it because they’re treated poorly, it’s still a valid stereotype. Do all black people tip poorly? No. Are all poor tippers black? No. On a given night, were tips less than 15%? Yes. Across the board and all servers, so leveling out for experience/quality? Yes.
The restaurant was *busy*, so it’s not like it sucked and people were expressing their opinion on how bad things were. What was particularly outstanding was that it was just that tips were sub-par, it’s that tips were either high-standard (~20+%) or quite low (~5%), with the overall balance working out to somewhere in the neighborhood of 10%.
Eventually, I moved. The stereotype held, even when I moved to a part of the country that isn’t nearly as heavily black as that from which I moved.
Did anyone *discriminate*? Nope. Most of the clientele was black, so you just dealt with it. You knew that if you gave sub-par service you were likely not to get a tip at all. Sometimes someone would gripe, and someone else would remind them, “but yeah, overall you’re still making more than $100/night” (and this was in 1992).
BTW: Worst tippers ever? Teachers. Period. I’ll take a group of freaking vegetarian-gluten-intolerant-only-put-5-icecubes-exactly-in-my-drink CAVEMEN before a group of teachers. I actually quit a job at a hotel because they had a rash of teachers’ conventions, and I said I wouldn’t work another, and they scheduled me. The last lunch I worked, I rang over $1000 (during their allotted 45 minutes for lunch) and grossed less than $20 in tips, and that was typical.
I dunno I have a lot of friends my age who are teachers (late 20′s / early 30′s) and they are perfectly normal restaurant patrons, including their tipping habits. Maybe it’s a generational thing?
Probably.
My sister is a teacher and she’s commented that she will only go to lunch with co-workers if she picks up the tab. She’s embarrassed by the fact they don’t tip, and will even argue with each other over how much the person who had tea ($1.29) versus the soda ($1.49) owes.
My nephew is also a teacher and was surprised by this. He said he and his friends all tip ‘normal’.
As an aside, my totally anecdotal anecdote is ~15 years old at this point. But still: wouldn’t want to wait on groups of teachers again. They would have conventions at the hotel, and be allowed 45 minutes for lunch. The convention wouldn’t include food (too expensive!), so they would gang-rush the restaurant in the hotel.
Virtually every one would order soup/salad or soup/sandwich combo. This was smart: mostly pre-made, quick to serve. I remember distinctly: it was $5.41 if they got nothing to drink. The overwhelming majority would not even leave me the $.09 and take the two quarters from the $6. Interspersed in there would be the occasional quarter or even a dollar, but those were rare.
Seriously. And this happened like every other week for a few months. Different groups of teachers. So I quit.
Just saw a program where a geneticist said it’s likely all those KKK guys in the south have at least some African genes keeping them alive.
I’m shocked it’s only 1/3. When you repeatedly get stiffed or get a shitty tip from a certain group of people after providing good or excellent service, you learn to read people. You start to pick out the good from the bad.
And the one time a month you judge wrong, you feel like a pile of shit and remember that you can’t always read a book by its cover, and shouldn’t let the bias of your past experiences effect how you treat completely different people.
I’ve waited tables before, and though I hate to say it, this is true. You’re more likely to have a black customer tip poorly, and be a bigger pain, though that’s not across the board. So what? You do your job the best you can.
I understand what many of the commenters are saying about allocating more time and energy toward customers more likely to tip well. I can’t even fault them for it.
The root of the problem is whole tipping system. Pay servers a decent wage. Though I support tips for extraordinary service.
Why do you understand people saying they will allocate more time and energy to other tables? Why is it ok for people to discriminate against someone based solely on their color?
Stereotypes exist for a reason.
Oh, so you want real proof? How about a research paper on the subject?
http://www.tippingresearch.com/uploads/lynn_BW_final_draft_2.pdf
And here’s a little ditty from former NPR reporter Juan Williams
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1329241&sc=emaf
Cue the lame straw man arguments, deflections, and denial in 3… 2… 1…
Oh, another tipping article. Every time I see one of these, I am overjoyed that I live in Canada where the lowest wage workers receiving gratuities can receive is $8.35/hr, or about $1,336 a month, pre tax. I can go to a restaurant and know that my waiter does not depend on my tip to make a living wage. I find that most wait staff do not expect a tip, and most seem truly grateful when they get one, regardless of what percent it is. If I leave a tip – it is my way of saying you did excellent. Unless service is dreadful, then I leave 2 pennies, to make a point that I didn’t “forget.”
This thing about “regulars” is also confusing to me – I go to the same restaurants fairly regularly, but have never had special service because of this, or even staff that remembers I’ve been there before. Maybe to do with our turn over rate? Not sure on that one.
I really can’t comment on the racial part, as the province I live (New Brunswick) is prodominately white, though that has been changing over that past 10 years or so.