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Jan. 14, 2021 - Epoch Times
10:24
Blacks Are Lousy Tippers; Hurts ‘Race Relations’ | Larry Elder
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Race relations.
Everybody's talking about how can we improve race relations.
And you know, the definition of race relations in today's America comes down pretty much to just one thing.
How do black people feel about white people?
And how do white people feel about how black people feel about white people?
Let me tell you how we can improve race relations, address a major problem in American society, a problem that forms opinions, that forms impressions, that, yes, forms stereotypes.
You know what that problem is?
Blacks are lousy tippers.
Have you ever been a waiter or a waitress and served on a black table?
You know what I'm talking about.
Blacks are lousy tippers.
Oh, have I got your attention now?
I used to be a waiter in my dad's cafe, and I'm telling you, some people just don't tip.
Come on, throw in a buck.
Uh-uh, I don't tip.
You don't tip?
No, I don't believe in it.
And, as far as I'm concerned, getting a ridiculously low tip is worse than getting no tip.
Okay, with no tip, you can write it off to, okay, they just didn't know the rules.
But when you get a ridiculously low tip, it means that they were insulting you and insulting your service.
May I help you, sir?
How much for an order of ribs?
250.
250?
How many ribs do I get with that?
About five.
Five?
So I guess that's about 50 cents a rib, huh?
Yeah, about.
Let me get one.
Right on.
One order.
One order of ribs.
No, no, no, no.
One rib.
One rib.
I sure am hungry.
I mean, really, really cheap.
Now, I'm not talking about when the food is bad.
I don't feel so good.
It must have been that fish we had for dinner.
The food in this hotel is certainly crummy.
Nor am I talking about when the service is bad, or perhaps more accurately, when the service is perceived as bad.
Got a menu?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Now, as I mentioned, I worked as a waiter for my dad.
And I'm telling you, my dad could tell when somebody walked into the restaurant what kind of tip he or she would lead based upon their race and gender.
My dad said white males tip better than white females, who in turn tip better than black males, who in turn tip better than black females, but blacks in general were, he said, lousy tippers.
Now there has been a real study, an academic study, by the Cornell Hotel School of Management that confirms what my dad said.
Race Differences in Restaurant Tipping.
Professor Michael Lin, School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University.
Research on race differences in tipping suggests blacks leave smaller average restaurant tips than do whites.
Black-white differences in tipping persist after controlling for socioeconomic status.
Blacks tip less than whites even when provided comparable levels of service.
Blacks tip less than whites even when the server is black.
And blacks are much less likely than whites to know that it is customary slash expected to tip 15 to 20 percent of the bill.
The paper noted comments...
From a discussion board put up by tipping.org, all the servers I work with hate having to work on minorities, black people in particular, and over half of our waitstaff is black.
I will not take black tables unless I have no other option.
To most, but not all black tables, I will wait on you last And spend less time with you, because though I've tried giving considerate, friendly, and attentive service, it's been to no avail." I have worked in restaurants that attract a black clientele, and I am done with it.
Not only am I not treated well when waiting on them, but I am not tipped well." How bad is it?
Real bad.
Blacks tip flat dollar amounts rather than percentages of the bill for restaurant services more than do whites.
Blacks stiff or fail to tip restaurant servers more often than do whites.
And Blacks leave smaller restaurant tips on average than do whites.
In one survey, 50.7% of Blacks and 19.4% of whites reported tipping flat amounts.
7% of blacks and 1% of whites reported that they never tipped restaurant servers.
5.6% of blacks, as compared to 31.1% of whites, claimed to regularly tip more than 15% of the bill.
Blacks tipped less on average than did whites.
With the difference ranging from 3.6% of the check size to 7.1% of the check size.
Is it a matter of the differences between education and socioeconomic status between blacks and whites?
No, it's not.
There is the possibility that black-white differences in tipping are really just disguised socioeconomic differences.
But it turns out education and income have little to do with the percentage of tips blacks give.
The data suggests that black-white differences in tipping are largely independent of socioeconomic differences between the races." Okay, is it a matter of the quality of service?
I don't tip because society says I have to.
All right, I mean, I'll tip if somebody really deserves a tip.
If they really put forth the effort, I'll give them something extra.
But I mean, it's tipping automatically.
It's for the birds.
No, it's not the quality of service.
Blacks in that study reported stiffing more and tipping less than whites even when the service is good.
These findings do not mean that service discrimination never occurs or that service discrimination never contributes to ethnic differences in tipping.
However, the findings do suggest that service discrimination is not the primary cause of black-white differences in tipping." End of quote.
Do black customers tip black waiters any better?
No!
Two studies have examined the possibility that race differences in tipping vary with the race of the server.
But black-white differences in tipping were evident for both black and white servers.
These studies are consistent with a larger study of taxicab tipping that found blacks tip less than whites, regardless of whether the cab driver was white or black.
End of quote.
Now this brings us to the why.
Is it that blacks just don't know the standard rule is between 15 and 20% tip?
Yes!
That's what's going on.
They don't know.
Blacks may be less familiar with the norm of a 15 to 20% tip than are whites.
Indeed, data from two national telephone surveys indicate that blacks are less familiar than whites with the 15 to 20% tipping norm.
Whites are roughly twice as likely as blacks to know the 15 to 20% tipping is norm.
Research suggests that knowing the 15 to 20% norm powerfully affects people's tipping behavior, and there can be little doubt that the awareness of this norm is a necessary precondition for its effect on behavior." Precondition?
In English, that means, if you don't know what to do, how can you possibly do the right thing?
When I was living in Cleveland, a black female friend worked at a very nice jazz dinner club.
She told me she waited on a table, four or five black people, very demanding.
She gave them excellent service, as she always does.
And when they left, they left her a tip.
One dollar.
She picked it up, rushed outside the restaurant, caught up with them, and said, hey, if this is all you can afford to leave, you need it more than I do, and gave it back to them and went back into the restaurant.
This kind of thing forms opinions.
A lot of young people have their very first job as a server, and they're beginning to form opinions about lots of things, including about races.
And when you don't leave a decent tip, I'm telling you, it can form an impression that can last forever.
Is there any goulash on this menu?
It's roast beef gravy.
Ah, it's with gravy.
It's from the hot drinks on our side.
Water pot.
Oh.
No extra charge for the cold shower, I hope.
Wait a minute.
Who didn't throw in?
Mr.
Pink.
Mr.
Pink.
Why not?
You don't tip.
You don't tip?
What do you mean you don't tip?
They don't believe in it.
Shut up.
What do you mean you don't believe in it?
Come on, you.
Cough up a buck, you cheap bastard.
I pay for your goddamn breakfast.
All right, since you pay for the breakfast I'll put in, but normally I would never do this.
Never mind what you normally would do.
Just cough in your goddamn buck like everybody else.
So, if you want to improve race relations, leave between a 15% and 20% tip.
You'll be amazed at what that does.
I'm Larry Elder, and we've got a country to save.
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