It's called an Arnold Palmer for a reason, douche.

The BBQ Pit
1

As some of you know, I work in a restaurant. I’m a server. I get to deal with douchebag customers every day, so I am mostly pretty desensitized to it. But today I had a lady that just floored me with her douchbaggery, and it’s not the first time I’ve heard someone say this, so I really feel like it’s time to step up and call this horrible practice out.

I was taking drink orders at a table of African-American folks. One elderly lady asks for “A lemonade mixed with iced tea”, a rather cumbersome way to order a common drink better known as an Arnold Palmer. In fact, I couldn’t even figure out what she was saying the first time (it’s pretty loud in my restaurant) and when she said it again I reply with, “Oh, an Arnold Palmer.”

She wags her finger at me, “No, a Tiger Woods.” OK, like I said, I’ve heard that one before and I know full well why she is calling it a “Tiger Woods”. Because Tiger Woods is black, and Arnold Palmer is white. Yes, really.

It’s called an Arnold Palmer because Arnold Palmer basically invented it. Even if he wasn’t the first man ever to mix iced tea and lemonade, he was the one who made it famous. It doesn’t matter if he is white, black, fuschia, or teal. Tiger Woods, on the other hand, did not invent the Arnold Palmer. I don’t know if Tiger Woods drinks Arnold Palmers or not, but I bet you if he does when he orders them he says, “I’ll have an Arnold Palmer”. If Michael Jordan invented a drink, and I went into a restaurant I wouldn’t say “I’ll have a Michael Jordan, except I call it a Larry Bird because Larry Bird is white, like me.”

This, to me, shows me right off the bat that this person is a stupid Anglophobe. And guess what? I’m white! I serve black people all the time, but it kind of makes me uncomfortable when someone like this basically professes their ignorant disdain for my race and I’m still stuck serving them margaritas. It feels genuinely insulting. And when she said that, of course I didn’t tell her what I really thought of the term because I was still hoping to get a tip - that’s why I’m there, right? (for the record, they did end up giving me a 15% tip) But it’s bugging me enough that the next time I hear it, I am going to set the record straight (in a polite, factual way of course), tip be damned.

2

She could have definitely come up with something better then Tiger Woods to represent Ice Tea. Ice T would have been better.

3

I’d never heard of iced tea with lemonade being called anything other than iced tea with lemonade. Now I learn that it was invented by a golfer for use as a douche. Gotta love the SDMB.

4

These were my thoughts upon reading the OP as well.

5

I was only half awake when I read the OP, and I thought it was a white person making a bad racist joke (of the type my bigot father would think was hilarious): iced tea (brown drink) mixed with lemonade (light-colored drink) = Tiger Woods (person of mixed race). Har har har.

I’m still not sure which version is worse.

6

It’s so much an Arnold Palmer that the Arizona canned version is endorsed by the man, with his picture on the label. Love 'em.

7

I’ve never heard of it full stop.
But now I want one.

8

The Nantucket Nectars version of the drink is called, IIRC, a Half and Half…

Does Arizona make non-diet Arnie’s? I make these all the time at home but I don’t like the sweetener Arizona uses in their diet drinks.

9

You could use one. Smells like a Nova Scotia cannery in here.

I love Iced tea, but Iced Green Tea is even better. Not easy to come by in shops though.

10

Also I got the impression that she was mostly trying to demonstrate that she’s heard of Arnold Palmer and knows he’s a golfer.

11

That was my guess too, since his largest ethnic backgrounds are black (brown tea) and Thai (yellow lemonade). :rolleyes:

12

So why on earth does the new issue of Martha Stewart Living call iced tea plus orange juice an Arnold Palmer? Are they trying to be original?

13

O.J. never iced anybody. It was some other guy.

14

You all sure are taking this lightly. Don’t you see the insult here?

15

I dunno. The thought process was probably something pretty benign:

  1. What’s that drink that’s half lemonade, half iced tea called?
  2. I think it’s named after a golfer.
  3. Who is a golfer?
  4. Tiger Woods

As someone who knows zero about golf, I’ve sort of heard of Palmer (probably because of the drink!), but am well aware of Woods.

16

Eh, we’re just not getting too upset about it. Mostly I just really, really want an Arnold Palmer. Even though that’s one of those words I just cannot say right. Arnord Par… Arnold Pawww… fuck it. Maybe that’s why she called it a Tiger Woods.

17

Wrong. They (the people who use this term) know full well that it is called an Arnold Palmer. The first time I heard it, the person explicitly stated that they called it such because TW is black and AP is not.

18

And that’s what you have to ask for anywhere in Baltimore to get this drink. It’s not as common as it used to be, but local places will serve it under the Half and Half name. I’d never heard it called an Arnie, but the OP’s customer is a moron.

19

Well, in terms of dragging down the tenor of the board, yeah, we see the insult, but we thought it would be better to have fun with some of the terms and spin-offs than to spend an entire thread telling you to take the stick out of your ass.

I’d never heard of an Arnold Palmer, (even though I have been mixing iced tea and lemonade for years, at home), and the lady’s comment sounds exactly like the sort that my (white, 100% Irish descended) Mom would make in an effort at humor: a comment over which her kids were roll their eyes, other guests would offer a polite chuckle to demonstrate they understood her attempt at humor, and the world would then roll on without people taking umbrage to the point of not merely being mad about the incident, but being mad that other people were not sufficiently mad.

20

Except it wasn’t a joke, it was just racist. Since when is it OK to rename something just because you don’t like the race of the inventor, and name it after someone of your own race who had absolutely nothing to do with it? That’s the only point I want to make, and that doesn’t preclude anyone from making jokes and having fun in the thread, but I would at least like someone to acknowledge that point. Whether you agree or disagree is inconsequential.