A Houston man was shocked to discover insulting language used to describe him written at the bottom of his receipt by a restaurant employee.
The man, who asked not to be identified, dined at Plush Daiquiri Bar and Grill in Houston last Saturday. When he went to pay his bill, he noticed the words “to go dude with dreads, fat, gay” on the receipt.
“I don’t even know her, she don’t know me,” he tells his local news station. “What’s that, like, stereotyping? For her to not even know me and say ‘fat, gay’ and this and that.”
But the restaurant owners don’t seem to see any problem with it.
How about we take this to the next level?
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“It was just her way of describing him,” says co-owner Marcus Barlow. “It wasn’t nothing against him or nothing personal. It was her way of referencing back who to deliver the food to.”
Of course, another way of doing this would have been to ask for the guy’s name.
“She was unaware that he could see it,” adds Leighton Dickson, another co-owner, “and she was very apologetic to us about it, and she was disciplined.”
In other words: As long as a customer can’t see what derogatory words are being used to describe them, it’s OK.
The waitress has since been put on a three-day leave. Meanwhile, Dickson insists, “We do no discriminate at all at Plush.”
They just call their customers fat and gay behind their backs. Or, in this case, right in front of their faces… at the bottom of their receipts.
Meanwhile, the customer seems to be a lot more forgiving than most people would.
“If anybody asked about it, I would tell them, it’s a good restaurant,” he says. “I have nothing bad to say about the restaurant. I just will not go back.”
sfhairy
Or you know, get over it. She apologized. She was disciplined. Move on.
verifyb4believe
Seriously, she didn’t know the customer could see it on the receipt & she apologized, I’m not thinking there was any malice intended. Folks in the service industry often rely on descriptions rather than names, especially if it’s a busy place and they’re not running their own food. She didn’t use any hateful or derogatory terms, she just described him, obviously he’s fat and is gay. Our community “prides” itself on our ability to be sarcastic, catty and (ugh) “throw shade” but then clutch our collective pearls if someone even inadvertently offends us. Feel free to call me the skinny bald gay guy, just please don’t f@*k up my order.
olfwob
“and she was very apologetic to US about it, and she was disciplined.” She apologiced to her employer not the person she insulted.
Paulie P
no malice….. ?… how about guy with dreads. period.
Mack
As someone who worked in the industry for years, there are simpler ways to describe someone-use the colors they’re wearing, ie; Red shirt/black pants; pink belt, orange shoes. Or even do what many many businesses do-use a NUMBER. No it’s not okay to put down gay, bigot, bald, fat, ugly, it’s THAT SIMPLE!
b2rocketfan
There are several comments here that make zero sense. Just because someone “apologizes” doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences or that it doesn’t make it wrong. Also, most people don’t want to be labeled in such a way. That has Nothing to do with being thin-skinned and everything to do with common courtesy.
Finally, the article says she apologized to the owners but doesn’t mention the patron. How can the owners think this was ok because she wanted to recall who had the order? Literally what troglodyte world was she trained in?
As a fat, gay person I would have been outraged by this and would have left. No food is worth that kind of rude and dumb behavior.
WindsorOntario
Gay men are the first to belittle anything another gay person experiences and taunt them for being weak or stupid or bitter or lazy. We are the only minority group that throws each other under the bus on a regular basis. Gay men would watch another gay man get beaten up & then try to hit on the straight guy who beat him up rather than helping the gay guy.
curiobi
@WindsorOntario
Sources???
Man About Town
Everything WindsorOntario says is complete hogwash.
Coruna2018
GetOffMyinternet, WindsorOntario, and Verifyb4believe, you guys must live in padded cells with caretakers! In which world that calls itself civilized and practices humane civil rights is it okay to insult people, either in writing, much less, verbally, the way this waitress behaved. The fact that her supervisors tried justifying her behavior rather than demand that she issue a timely apology or lose her job for what is shameful, reprehensible behavior from anyone that should NEVER be tolerated nor excused shows how many people were raised by wolves and that’s an insult to the wolves. I would’ve fired that waitress on the spot. It is truly scary to know how there are people running around who seem so centered and functional yet are borderline sociopathic or were raised with little to no moral compass where the waitress’ behavior would be considered normal. I have no pearls to clutch, merely human decency to guide me.
Mikey E
A waitress was deprived of 3 days wages because of this guy’s bruised ego.
Dwight
Three days was light. If I had cavalierly insulted a paying client of my business it wouldn’t have been three days, it would have been forever.
Paulie P
HOW ABOUT THIS…….. GUY WITH DREADS…….. ?!
Heywood Jablowme
Wokeness = Pretending to be more offended than the actual victim is.
Jerry
So, would it be okay to change the word gay to the word black? Not to most.
montegutdude
“In other words: As long as a customer can’t see what derogatory words are being used to describe them, it’s OK.”
Maybe not morally OK but legally fine, sure. As long as they don’t infringe on anyone else’s Liberty, people are free to believe whatever they want to believe. It’s a stupid business practice to allow employees to use derogatory language at work and it was stupid for them to double down and defend the employee (imo) as actions have consequences (like negative press.) But, comeon, I can’t possibly care what people think about me if they keep it to themselves. They re-trained her. I’m sure she won’t do it again. And those two words really don’t tell you much about what this person really believes anyway. Moving on to the next moral outrage story now…
Man About Town
Because it’s never acceptable for a vendor to use that kind of language to describe a customer. Does that help you see what the problem is?
ShowMeGuy
Sure, they don’t discriminate…… they just call customers by derogatory names, but hey, the place still serves them. I’m looking for the “small victory” here; as a fat, gay guy, and I’m not seeing one.
Brian
I love how many people here are pretending that there’s no difference between an insult and a descriptive term. It’s really not asking too much to not be described this way by the business you’re patronizing.
Is this much of a news story? No. In the grand scheme of things, it is really just a grievance between this guy and the business. Is it right in Queerty’s wheelhouse? Absolutely. They live for this sh!t.
Sam6969
Maybe the patron did not want to be recalled by a stranger he was fat? Maybe the patron did not want to be made aware he somehow looked stereotypically gay? Or simply, maybe he did not want to be stigmatized. Now, sure, if we could read minds, there are a lot of places we would not go anymore.