‘It sounds like they were also embarrassed’: Server pronounces menu item the correct way. It backfires
A server working in fine dining called to question a restaurant patron who wanted to know if he had a green card just because he was able to pronounce a menu item correctly.
The story comes courtesy of Ohio-based creator Aairo (@uncleaairo), who bills himself in his bio as an "artist, musician, [and] language enthusiast." This video, put up on Saturday, drew more than 186,700 views as of this writing.
"So one of my tables today asked me if I had a green card," he begins. "People say you should work in fine dining. Yeah, you may get money, but this is the type of stupidity that you deal with."
He goes on to share that one of the patrons was mispronouncing the name of an Italian dish, and as a fine dining server who speaks two Romance languages—Spanish and Portuguese—he was able to provide the correct pronunciation when that man's wife requested it. The man was puzzled that someone like Aairo could be born and raised in the U.S. and speak a language other than English.
"What's not going through your head right now?" he wondered. "Why is it so hard for you to understand? You lack that much culture?"
He went on to decry what he has to witness in fine dining as a person of color, and in a follow-up video from the next day, had another tale about what he regarded as ignorant and perhaps even racist behavior, leading him to conclude, by way of the caption accompanying the video, "Dealing with people is hard."
Something to think about
Aairo makes an interesting point here if you unpack his story a bit beyond the obvious: In fine dining, you can make money, but it depends on how well patrons tip you—which is based on how they perceive service, which may factor in deference and acquiescence, depending on the patron.
In an Economic Policy Institute article from last year, writer Nina Mast argues, per the title of her article, "Tipping is a racist relic and a modern tool of economic oppression in the South."
"Tipping in the U.S. originated in the antebellum period," Mast noted. "Wealthy Americans vacationing in Europe got a taste of the aristocratic—including the continent’s medieval tradition of giving servants extra money for particularly good service—and brought the practice of tipping back home with them. Though tipping was initially unpopular in the United States and quickly eliminated in Europe, the practice persisted in the U.S. as racial hostility and discrimination allowed employers to codify the practice."
She added, "Relying on customers to pay the bulk of tipped workers’ wages exposes workers to tremendous instability of income, as pay can vary dramatically day-to-day and week-to-week." She also made the point, as a result, "Across the U.S., poverty rates for tipped workers are 2.3 times as high as poverty rates for non-tipped workers (11.3% vs. 4.9%)."
And it may not help your cause if, say, you correctly pronounce a menu item and then bristle at a question about your standing as a U.S. citizen vs. a resident authorized to live and work in the U.S.
Watch on TikTok
People have their say
Commenters shared their views on the situation.
"We're the only country that thinks being monolingual [is] a flex," observed one.
"He was owed no explanation," someone else told Aairo regarding the patron. "You are multilingual and that’s it."
"They was tryna rage bait you is what it seems like," another observed.
"As a Mexican I get asked this at work weekly now," shared another. "I’m 4th generation Mexican American. I speak English, Spanish, French and ASL but to them I’m just an illegal."
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via Instagram direct message and TikTok comment.
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The post ‘It sounds like they were also embarrassed’: Server pronounces menu item the correct way. It backfires appeared first on The Daily Dot.