A surprisingly frank discussion on Black's and tipping.
Getting horrible service is only lightly touched upon in the film. Some servers will give black tables the bare minimum on service to putting all thier effort into tables they think they will get a tip from. This causes a feedback loop of a garunteed bad tip and terrible service for the next group of Black patrons who will in turn not tip for shitty service. I remember my jaw dropping when an otherwise nice lady I waited tables with said "Oh shit, I don't want to wait on nigs". I took her table and got a 15% tip on it.
I have many regular Black patrons at the bar I work at now. They all tip reasonably well. I'd count a few of them as my friends I do get stiffed by Black people more often then Whites and probably make less tips as a function of sales off them as well but not to the point that I bemoan their business.
Economist have good data suggesting that what a person tips is strongly influenced by what their parents tipped. Seems like it might suggest that poverty, disenfranchisement and segregation might have all contributed to the reality and perception that (some) blacks don't tip.
Several other videos dealing with black stereotypes on Black Public Medias "Blacks Don't" series.
I've been running into a lot of these US-only stereotypes recently that I was never aware of. They kind of make me sad. I don't really get the point of tipping. In my country servers are unionized and paid decently, meaning they don't have to rely on untaxed income. It's a nice gesture, but by no means expected.
It varies massively across the country and in most places servers are excluded from minimum wage laws. The federal minimum wage for servers is $2.13 an hour, with the expectation being that tips will get them up above $7.25 per hour (and that the employer should make up the difference if they don't). Some states have higher standards than this. $7.25 an hour with a 40 hour work week comes out to about $15,000 a year and of course a lot of these jobs don't offer any sort of healthcare benefits. Edit: I was curious to see what the actual average is opposed to the minimum. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the average annaul wage at around $20,000 or $10 an hour. This data does include reported tips at least.
It's funny you should mention that since the most common stereotype I heard while working in food and bev (in the US) was "Europeans don't tip." I never noticed any trends with any so-called groups, but I also never focused on it. cgod is right about tip income being taxed as I knew several waiters who were audited by the IRS. This was in the 90s so hopefully they have moved on to bigger fish.
Reminds me of a scene in Uncle Tom's Cabin. There's this black slave girl, named Topsy that does all sorts of bad stuff, and this white girl named Eva asks her why she does what she does, and the black girl responds something along the lines of "Hey, Not like people expect better of me" Just found it odd; Was never expecting to be reminded of that scene today, or this year, or ever. The human brain is really quite interesting. Eva shows Topsy some love and forgiveness, basically treating her like a human being, and Topsy turns for the better. Responding to poor tipping with poor service really doesn't seem like a good idea.This causes a feedback loop of a garunteed bad tip and terrible service for the next group of Black patrons who will in turn not tip for shitty service.
If it was just Topsy waiting on just Eva every single meal that would be easy to see. But when things get more transactional and less.. relationship-al there's less incentive to turn the other cheek. Even if you were nice to them and they started tipping better, somebody else benefits. It's hard to think "what goes around comes around" at such times, I imagine. That's why we have the tragedy of the commons.
Every service exchange is about relationship, not realizing it is part of the problem. If you can build that relationship the first time maybe they come back. The bar I work at is in an area of town that has been heavily gentrified over the last ten years. When the place opened it wasn't uncommon for blacks to scream obscenities at the patrons through the large bay doors of the place, after six years we have a pretty decent group of black regulars. Each of the black patrons was hard won with handshakes, remembering names and drinks and just getting to know each other. The perception that each transaction is just a one time game is where the tragedy comes in and people fail to connect.
Thanks for sharing the video. I worked in the service industry and my fiancee is currently a bartender/server. She works at a sports bar in a relatively large city in the south. So not only do her coworkers talk about what races don't tip, they also talk about what local college sports teams don't tip. This topic gets me pretty heated whenever her coworkers bring it up. My fiancee is very math-oriented so she did a little experiment. She kept track of people and their tipping over a few months. Of their clientele, you had to watch out for white customers more than black customers. And yet, her coworkers keep on complaining about black customers. I assume it's a mixture of the fact that her coworkers, like it said in the video, don't give as good of service to black tables and so get tipped less as well as noticing it more when black tables don't tip compared to white tables. One of the main differences is that my fiancee gives the same service all around. In fact, she only has two types of customers that have ever given her trouble. One being the usual unruly children whose parents don't watch them. The other has only happened twice in a year, which only makes it a minor annoyance. My fiancee is half-Puerto Rican and it shows. Twice now she has served Latino couples and the woman has felt threatened and asked for another server. That's not really my fiancee's fault, and she's never thought about approaching those types of tables any differently. I wonder what those women would think if they knew it had become a big joke among the staff. They didn't know it, but my fiancee is gay. I'm rambling now. There's not that many times I get to discuss the service industry--both the good and the bad. Anyway, thanks for sharing again.
Just heard this Tyler song for the first time and the last line of it made me think of this post.
Hmm...the only reason I tip is because if I dont it makes me look bad. I would rather that restaurants pay their employees well. I am willing to pay more for my food. but I would like to see the price on the menu. Not have to guess - should I leave X or Y (how was the service?, what should I compare it with ? etc). In India, several restaurants have started adding a "service charge" (not service tax - that goes to the government) to the bill. This charge varies between 10-15% depending on the restaurant. This is pretty much the tip. It would be easier if that amount is added to the cost they display on the menu card.
Funny story years ago when I was delivering pizza this would always come up.
I was confused as it was not my experience it was a racially mixed but fairly affluent area. Turns out black regulars that would not tip other drivers would tip me. Its a funny ole world.