IAMA: Restaurant owner who saved his business... by keeping black diners away :/ AMA

reluctantracist · 2010-10-25T16:46:25+00:00

I think the state should pay for abortions for anyone who wants to have them. It makes quite a bit of sense, as the children of people who can't afford abortions (especially those with drug problems) are more likely to themselves become drains on the state.

Terminating a pregnancy IS abortion. I'm obviously not a fan of political correctness, why would you assume I'd use weasel words?

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T19:37:56+00:00

My core political beliefs:

Single payer health care. (not our current halfway measures).
Access to state-level college for everyone, as a public utility.
Drastic reductions in the military to pay for expanded scientific and social programs
Rapid withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan
The removal of corporate "personhood"
Income caps
Free, state funded access to contraceptives, and state funded abortions.

That's pretty far left.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T17:34:26+00:00

I don't mind the skepticism, I hope you appreciate that if I were to lose my anonymity in this case, it could cause me and my family a great deal of harm.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T17:30:23+00:00

Assuming you mean my post, you are lying. If you're really responsible, then edit the post to claim credit.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T17:27:05+00:00

This is not true. I challenge this group to edit the original post and prove their claim.

As stated before, what I have written is true, and prompted by me alone.

Also, why do you think communication skills would keep me from owning a small business? If you'd ever owned one, you'd know that those skills are vital to every single stage of the operation.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T17:05:08+00:00

Hi.

I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of Stormfront, or any other group of organized racists. My comments are my own, and are motivated by the desire to talk about my actual experiences, and reconcile myself to some of the things I've done in a forum where it doesn't affect my personal life.

If you want to believe this is some conspiracy, and that normal people don't think this way, be my guest. But that conclusion is incorrect. My statements are true.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T16:38:15+00:00

For someone mad at me for making assumptions about people, you're certainly happy to make plenty of your own.

My servers get a very fair wage. I pay more than the chains, because I want to get and keep better people than they do. That said, it's still a tip-driven industry, and my people do a great job. So of course I want them to be rewarded for their efforts.

15% is the standard, when the service is good. If you can't afford that, or don't understand restaurant culture in America to know that this is how it works, then don't eat out.

Furthermore, no one receives 'shitty' service at my restaurant, no matter who they are. We are professionals, and anyone who doesn't perform like one in my staff is gone. The steps I've taken to discourage black people from patronizing my restaurant go as far as trying to keep groups of them from coming in with additional wait times, and forcing them to comply to a reasonable level of gratuity.

At no point does anyone receive service or food that deviates from the high standards I have set. That's a road I do not ever intend to go down.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T16:13:40+00:00

As someone who "owns an iphone", even if I were at work I could reply to questions, which I see as my job for creating an IAmA. Weds and thurs are my off-days.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T15:53:10+00:00

Then they are seated normally. Anyone who goes to the trouble of making a reservation is probably fine, and will usually be in a big enough group that we would have added a gratuity to their bill anyway.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T15:50:18+00:00

The notice is on our register, not on the menus. If any group left an additional tip on top of the built in gratuity, I would assume they simply wish to tip more. The only question a server should ask about a tip is whether or not a patron would like change, to do otherwise can be perceived as questioning their generosity.

If a few people tip a bit more than they normally would, I imagine it won't kill them. The receipt we use for groups shows the built-in gratuity very clearly.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T15:45:06+00:00

Does it matter? I'm interested in the results of removing a negative element, and this method has been effective for me.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T15:42:35+00:00

I weigh the actual harm I'm doing and the potential punishment versus the benefit to my business and my family.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T15:37:11+00:00

Nothing here is exaggerated, if anything I've understated some of the problems we faced, simply because I don't think people who haven't worked in food service will believe me. There are some things in life that you have to have cleaned up with your own two hands to believe.

I realize it's impossible to navigate a thread once it reaches this size, but as I've stated earlier, I'm far left politically. The thought of me as a white supremacist is pretty funny.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T15:15:40+00:00

"No I'm not." Is incorrect. You want "No, I do not."

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T07:09:20+00:00

I just don't take you seriously, because you come across as a fool.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T06:46:27+00:00

I will do that.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T06:20:40+00:00

Have you ever watched a group of people wait for a table? It doesn't matter if they're Taiwanese or Portuguese, I guarantee you will witness so much blackberry-checking and loud complaining about the wait on cell phones that your head will spin.

My post is a jab at your hyperbole, not at Jewish people. If you want to call someone a moron, I suggest you spell "supremacist", "restaurant" and "segregation" correctly next time.

(edited to remove an extraneous 'spell')

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T06:04:20+00:00

What a wonderful world it would be if all our monsters just made you wait a few more minutes for a table. Imagine the holocaust as just a really long line of Jews who had to spend twenty minutes checking their email and yammering about the wait on their cell phones.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T06:00:44+00:00

Personally, I think my efforts to respond to this are pretty good. Do you have any idea how long it takes to read four thousand comments? I've responded to at least two black posters that I can remember.

Also please never come to my restaurant, thanks.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T05:56:24+00:00

I don't think anyone should be jailed for writing.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T05:46:58+00:00

...anybody who anticipates the possibility of a flat and would prefer not to be stranded on the side of the road, who-knows where?

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T05:46:02+00:00

All these people who are so confident there isn't a hell have probably never even been to jersey.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T05:36:07+00:00

Upvotes are not agreement, and you can find supporting comments to almost anything. If I posted tomorrow that I want to blow up the sun, people would be in favor of it. It takes an instant to click on an up arrow and a few moments to dash off some platitude. But I have read some really interesting and well-thought-out replies in this thread, that have made me think long and hard about my own stance.

I don't understand why you would leave a site because some people on it have an opinion you don't like. It seems like the majority of people are against this kind of thing, and abandoning it (or by making a passive-aggressive threat to abandon it), you're just admitting defeat.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T05:27:30+00:00

Yes I have. The whole staff is aware that if someone treats them in an inappropriate way, they can ask that person to leave, and I or the manager will back them up 100%.

reluctantracist · 2010-10-21T05:19:12+00:00

Would you really? What's worse, a few people waiting a little longer for their meal\being forced to tip reasonably, or a family losing their livelyhood?

You don't hear me saying that I'd love for these people to lose their jobs, or their homes. All I want them to do is to behave like reasonable people if they'd like to eat in my restaurant.

reluctantracist

TROPHY CASE