I Don’t Think A Lot Of People Know What The Word Racist Means.
Where I go to college, we only get a four-day weekend for Spring Break. Because that’s not nearly enough time to have a decent vacation (and because my girlfriend was out of town), I decided to work every single night.
I didn’t make more than 65 bucks any of those four days. Sweet, huh?
Thursday night, the first of my four-day odyssey, I was seated a black family of five. Why do I care to mention that they were black?
Mother: “You don’t hafta give us these lil’ cups just cause weez black.”
Me: “What?”
Mother: “Racist.”
It seems as though the only word the mother could articulate past a middle-school education was “racist”. Funny how that works out, huh?
A little backstory: Jay, our owner, accidentally made a mistake when he opened the restaurant and got two different-sized glasses. One holds 16 ounces, the other holds 12. As servers, we try to give the adults the larger glasses and the kids the smaller glasses. Sounds reasonable, right?
Well, when we’re slammed, we run out of the larger glasses. So we have to give the adults the 12 ounce glasses. No big deal. Just a couple more refills for us.
It’s a big deal for some people. Downright “racist” if you ask them.
So I explain to the woman that it’s not “racist” of me because we’re completely out of glasses. She mumbles something about discrimination and how she wants to take me to court or something, continues with her meal and leaves.
Not without leaving a four dollar tip on an eighty-dollar tab, however.
March 26th, 2007 at 2:24
Oh.
My.
God.
That is just insane. I can’t even begin to put into words how much people like that make me want to kill people >.>
March 26th, 2007 at 3:09
I have to repeat Patricia because nothing else will do:
Oh.
My.
God.
That level of ignorance astonds me. It’s like the right of entitlement is the first and only thing bore into their minds. I mean, I was discussing how easy it is for minorities to go to college for free with my friend Jeff when this black girl (I only say girl because anyone under the age of 18 to “me” is a girl NOT a woman who has seen what the real world is like) interupts and has the audacity to tell me that there are scholarships out there for white people only as well as black only. WHAT?! Maybe if I wanted to attend Bob Jones University where they can get a way with such things.
I politely told her because of “entitlement” it is FAR easier for a minority to get all kinds of free money for college vs. a white guy who’s parents are in the same income bracket as theirs. She snuffed her nose at me and turned a way. I was going to ask her who asked her to join the convo. anyway but I didn’t want to get busted by the overly p.c. police at work.
March 26th, 2007 at 6:45
ok…she knew you were not being racist. She had to mkae and excuse and a secene so that she felt justified in leavinga shitty tip. Sometimes my customers would come in and leave their sunglasses on…never look me in the eye…mumble and then leave no tip. As if their not making eye contact with me, would in some way unable me to make out their faces if they were standing in a line of “shitty tippers”,
OH my GOD…is right…
March 26th, 2007 at 8:37
In my experience the folks that are most often actual racists are those that complain about others being racist towards them.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:33
When I was a waiter in L.A. every week this group of 6-10 Nation of Islam dudes would come in to my restaurant. I usually had to serve them.Talk about racists! That was a drag!
March 27th, 2007 at 2:25
So I guess when you saw their bow ties that meant tip goodbye.
March 27th, 2007 at 3:07
Well they were always very well dressed..That’s about the nicest thing I can say about them. Without..you know..being racist.
March 27th, 2007 at 9:46
Get your lawyer prepared, and be very afraid.
March 29th, 2007 at 2:24
[…] five year old boy was drinking some milk the other day. I was out of the larger glasses (as this restaurant does quite frequently) and so I brought the precious little boy his pineapple juice in a 12oz glass instead of an […]
March 30th, 2007 at 3:38
For one, you are hilarious.
Also, I wanted to share this anecdote with you.
A few night ago we were completely dead, but for some reason the manager decided not to make any cuts. Eventually, the hostess told me I’d be cut in the next five minutes unless we got slammed. So, this is what happens. I get sit, right before I get cut, with a six-top of teenage boys, and the table’s not even in my section. Most order water (not a good sign), and half of them don’t eat. As a matter of fact, they spend most of their time being obnoxious and harassing some twenty-something blondes in the lounge part of the restaurant from behind a sheet of plexiglass. I knew I wasn’t going to make shit off this table, so I didn’t bother with the plastic smile. I pulled up a chair to take their order. (”Are you allowed to do that?!” To which I replied, “I just gave myself permission.”) Later a drunk guy stumbled by their table and asked if I would treat them good, and I said yes, if they left me good tips (this was met with horrified looks from the boys). The three that ate ordered the same thing, so their bills were the same: $11.75. Here is what I got: $11, $13, $13. One of them didn’t even pay the whole tab, so I got $1.75 from them ($2.50 - $0.75 to pay that fucker’s bill) I made nothing, because their whole tip went to tipping out the bussers and bartender. And they made a huge fucking mess.
Great way to end a night, huh?