Restaurant charges white customers £13 more than people of colour

[Balu]

Restaurant charges white customers £13 more than people of colour to challenge racial wealth disparity


Around the world, different races have varying levels of access to wealth and resources. And in America, the disparity between black and white social mobility is still huge. Which is why one chef is challenging the way people understand racial wealth disparity by charging white customers at his pop-up restaurant more than people of colour. SAARTJ is the brainchild of New Orleans-based chef Tunde Wey. Anyone can dine there but white customers will face an $18 (£13) increase in their bill, compared to others. Tunde is originally from Lagos, Nigeria, and he’s previously organised a nation-wide dinner series called ‘Blackness in America’.

His latest experiment comes from discovering that, according to a 2013 study, the median household income for Afro-Americans in New Orleans is 54% lower than for whites.
The restaurant is named after Saartji Baartman, a South African who was enslaved and paraded around Europe as a freak show thanks to her having ‘steatopygia’ – resulting in extremely protuberant buttocks. She died aged 26 and her story is seen today as the epitome of colonial exploitation and racism. Customers have two pricing options: a standard price of $12 (£8.66) and a suggested price of $30 (£21.66). ‘The standard price was available to all customers, while the suggested price was offered to white customers,’ Tunde explains. ‘The pricing differential represents the wage disparity between black and white households in New Orleans. The net profit collected from sales at the suggested price was redistributed to customers of colour.’

Tunde’s avoided publicity around the project in order to gauge genuine reactions from customers. But after running for a month already, he’s found that around 78% of white guests have chosen to pay the higher amount. No doubt, a large part of that is down to feeling guilt-tripped into paying the higher amount (we’ve all felt pressurised into paying service charge by a waitress, let alone coming face-to-face with the actual chef). ‘People look on the other side of the till and see me standing there and they’re thinking that I’m judging them. If they couldn’t pay a higher amount, they gave me a list of caveats why they couldn’t,’ Tunde tells Civil Eats.

So, what happens to the extra cash? Well, Tunde wants to redistribute it to customers of colour but so far, only six people of colour have signed up to receive their share. ‘Black people have even tried to pay the $30 and I’m like “No, it’s not for you”. ‘A lot of the Black folks said, “I don’t need that money, give it to someone else who needs it”.’

P.S. This article was found in Russian and was discussed in Russian forum.
https://zugunder.com/index.php?topic=230346.0
You may enjoy the discussion of this topic as well as discussions of many others. So, help yourselves, Americans.

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2018/03/11/restau...5/?ito=cbshare
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[darin]

Love it. Love also when it goes out of business because #letthemarketdecide.

[CSM]

Nice....
Balu, do you ever get tired of bashing the US or does the Kremlin pay you by the word count?

[darin]

its actually a good-news story

"‘A lot of the Black folks said, “I don’t need that money, give it to someone else who needs it”.’

That's what I'm talkin' about.

[Balu]

Nice....
Balu, do you ever get tired of bashing the US or does the Kremlin pay you by the word count?

Do you know how the country where the payments are effected in pounds is called?

[pete311]

Maybe you want to get the actual story before you judge.
https://www.saartj.com/


The price difference is a SUGGESTION to highlight inequality.

As usual you guys do no research and overreact.

[darin]

Maybe you want to get the actual story before you judge.
https://www.saartj.com/


The price difference is a SUGGESTION to highlight inequality.

As usual you guys do no research and overreact.

Let's see - I reacted positively to the story. CSM asked Balu why he seems to like to point out what Balu thinks are stories that make the US look bad. Balu then, having not read the story, assumed the story was about a restaurant in the UK.

Nobody else reacted. Thus, your point is dumb Pete.

[pete311]

Let's see - I reacted positively to the story. CSM asked Balu why he seems to like to point out what Balu thinks are stories that make the US look bad. Balu then, having not read the story, assumed the story was about a restaurant in the UK.

Nobody else reacted. Thus, your point is dumb Pete.

You want the store to go out of business. How positive of you. I thought you were about jobs?

[Bilgerat]

Nice....
Balu, do you ever get tired of bashing the US or does the Kremlin pay you by the word count?

[Polite Russian]

What? Racism? Nooooooo, you are racist, because you want your White privilege to pay less, than you shoud!

[mundame]

I don't read the trolls, paid or just troublemakers, but I get the gist.

Okay, that's a challenge to my currently extreme Libertarian view that we should have total freedom of association. That is, if someone owns a motel or restaurant or wedding venue, they should be able to choose freely with whom they want to do business --- and who won't be served. That's what I want, and what we used to have within the lifetimes of many posting here.

This idea of charging some people more than others comes up all through the millennium and everywhere --- usually because the shopkeepers think they can get more out of richer people. Customers all hate it, because it's patently unfair.

If it's secret, people find out others are paying less and demand parity --- or go elsewhere, if there is any elsewhere.

This seems to be out in the open and a way of saying, "We don't want white customers."

I guess bakers and so on might try that on as a way to say, sure, we'll bake you a pervert cake, if you pay us an extra million.

Blacks can drink at this bar, fine, but you pay double. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........interesting tactic. Not strictly illegal, probably, but I don't predict a long life for this restaurant. They may know they are going out of business and are having a little political fun on the way out.

We always went to this one restaurant when we went to the livestock auction with the lambs, year after year, but one day I ordered a hot dog -- it was on the menu, and a waitress, acting all shocked, pointed out that the price was $70!! It was some kind of old joke, apparently, maybe to keep out teenagers, but I was not amused. Let them have their big jokes on some other customers. Ever since we've eaten at the Full Moon Saloon down the road.

But okay, I'm for it, if it's a thin entering wedge to regaining total, I said TOTAL, freedom of association. Business owners should get to do differential pricing on any basis they want: let's see what comes of it.

[CSM]

Not pissed off. Bemused is a better word.

[CSM]

Do you know how the country where the payments are effected in pounds is called?

I do indeed! Which is why I found the story rather weird. I also thought it rather creative for the owner to try to leverage "white guilt" to make more money....
Further, I thought you really had to dig to find that little story to try to bash the US.... no story too small for Russian propaganda I guess....

[pete311]

I do indeed! Which is why I found the story rather weird. I also thought it rather creative for the owner to try to leverage "white guilt" to make more money....
Further, I thought you really had to dig to find that little story to try to bash the US.... no story too small for Russian propaganda I guess....

Did you miss the part where the owner donates the difference IF the white consumer agrees to the suggested price?

[CSM]

Did you miss the part where the owner donates the difference IF the white consumer agrees to the suggested price?

Nope...also noted that few have signed up to receive that donation.... or did you miss that part?