A few years back a server who I apparently was getting coo with me
decided to express her dissatisfaction with black tables (she is white).
“Poor tippers” she said. There is some truth to that but that’s for
another discussion. She said she never liked having them because of
that ‘fact’. I thought “Perhaps it’s the unconscious attitude of
your underlying racist tendencies they pick up on. Perhaps you treat
them differently than other tables. Perhaps…” Anyways, I bit my
tongue for a couple reasons. I am not very confrontational and
argumentative and I’m not perfect. I like to play it coo most of the
time. Some people think it’s an “Uncle Tom” thing to do (which I
resent a little, but not as much as I used to). She had a bit of a
point, honestly, but it’s the time when you are surprised by a nice
act you didn’t see coming by someone that I find interesting, so it’s
whatever.
I happened to get a table with a black family sitting on it a little
while later. An 8 top I think, kids the whole nine. Went about my
normal time with them and it was all good. Check time and I was happy
to see they left me $20 (on a $100 tab). Now 20% is approaching
generous and I was appreciative for 1) the money and for, more
importantly 2) the moral justification. I went to the server in which
I could have earlier told her about herself and calmly pointed to the
check and the credit card tip and simply said “Black people”.
That felt good 
- Corey
