Post-Racial Update: Restaurants, Racist Bar Signs, & Racist NHL Hockey Fan Tweets

So, here we are with yet another post-racial America update. How long has it been now? What, almost four years? Man, time sure has flown since that cold day in January 2009 when us minorities gained full equality here in America. All thanks and praises due to president Barack Obama of course. Just think, if it were not for him, I dunno, maybe black people would still be getting lynched on Main Street  all across the country like the not-so-good old days of all that racism, oppression, and degradation. You know, back when we were ashamed to eat watermelon and fried chicken in public? Speaking of, did you hear about the new study about racism and shitty restaurant service?

“Many people believe that race is no longer a significant issue in the United States,” says Sarah Rusche, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the study. “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.”

Researchers wanted to determine the extent to which customers’ race affects the way they are treated at restaurants, so the researchers surveyed 200 servers at 18 full-service chain restaurants in central North Carolina. The majority of the servers surveyed – approximately 86 percent – were white.

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.

“‘Tableside racism’ is yet another example in which African-Americans are stereotyped and subsequently treated poorly in everyday situations,” says Rusche. “Race continues to be a significant barrier to equal treatment in restaurants and other areas of social life.”

Now this poses an interesting question: which comes first a) racist white waiters and waitresses, or b) cheap-ass black people who are bad tippers? Oh, I’m only asking because you know as well as I do that black people are bad tippers we can’t attribute this to racism. I mean, it’s not like white folks have a problem waiting on tables occupied by black folks; after all, we did it for them for so long back in the day. Heck, why would they have a problem returning the favor now? Remember, if it wasn’t for them, there’d be no black president. That said, why would they be racist after all that?

Now of course there are exceptions to every rule. Yes, not everyone is happy about America being post-racial. Speaking of which, even Pres. Obama himself recently rejected the notion that we’re “post-racial,” in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. I guess the actions of “certain people” within the Republican party serves as evidence of this. Oh, and I’m not talking exclusively about GOP elected officials; instead, I’m also including their supporters. You know, supporters like Patrick Lanzo, who doesn’t have a problem expressing the opinion that he, “Doesn’t support niggers in the White House.” A pretty smart move if you own a bar and grill and you’re interested in attracting clientele nostalgic for those simpler and more oppressive times in America:

 As much as many may wish for the good old days, the truth is, nothing good or bad lasts forever. Yep, people of color have been breaking down racial barriers for quite some time. And though they attempt to change the rules of the game once said advances are made, we black people still triumph. Case in point? Hell, we even have black guys playing hockey professionally in the NHL these days. What? Did y’all really think we were going to stop after golf?

Man, Caucasian please!

As much as some might not like it, we’ll be there to do great things Yep, just ask Joel Ward who plays for the Washington Capitals, who scored the game winning goal in game seven of their playoff game against the Boston Bruins; yep, he’s black. And, as poetic justice would have, Ward’s goal was retribution for Bruins goalie Tim Thomas’ snub of the White House, and fans on Twitter were pissed. Clearly, for some, it’s hard to accept the fact that America is changing.

God Bless America…