I know a guy who works as a pizza delivery guy. He has observed, and reports that his coworkers have also observed, that black people are generally much worse tippers than white people.
Is this racism?
What if some kind of large survey were done and this were found, statistically, to be true? Would that make it less racist?
I know this guy fairly well, and I’m pretty sure he does not treat black people badly, refuse to be friends with black people, make statements about inherent genetic black predisposition towards cheapness, or anything of that sort. What he does do is, when telling stories about his pizza delivery adventures, point out jocularly things like “and the kicker is… she was black!” or “I got a huge tip from a black guy today, it was so surprising”.
His claim, stating that he is not being racist, is that he’s stereotyping/generalizing, but not being racist. I claim that stereotyping/generalizing about people based on race, particularly in a negative way (and “poor tippers” is pretty unambiguously negative, when coming from a pizza delivery guy) is definitely racist. Maybe not a very harmful kind of racism, but racism nonetheless.
(I realize this is a pretty meaninglessly semantic debate, but I’m curious what people have to say).
Insufficient infrormation. It might be interesting to know how much discretionary income (extry money) his various cstomers have. There is nothing in your OP to support a charge of racism.
Let me amend my previous response. If in fact black people who he serves are worse tippers than white people, then of course it is not racism. How can a true statement be racist?
If he extrapolates fromm his experience and asserts that all black people are worse tippers, he is at least guilty of bigotry and prejudice.
To follow up on Contrapuntal, if he assumes a specific, individual black person is a bad tipper because any number of previous black people have tipped poorly, that would be a racist attitude. He’s judging a person’s behavior by the color of his skin. Even if blacks as a group tend to tip poorly, there are always individuals in any group that buck the trend. Which is why everyone should be treated as individuals first, and members of their respective demographics second.
Since it seems this debate is mostly based on semantics, let’s go to the dictionary:
**rac‧ism
–noun
a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
Stereotyping isn’t the same as having a racist attitude, especially given the definitions above. If I find out my new co-worker that I haven’t met yet is German, and I’m glad because I think that means that he’ll have a good work ethic, that’s not a racist attitude.
Gotta disagree with you there, x-ray. Look at the second definition you provided for racism: “Discrimination or prejudice based on race.”
If the OP’s friend approaches a customer and thinks, “It’s a black guy. I’m going to get stiffed on the tip,” then he has just pre-judged that person. This is prejudice. He has based his pre-judgement on the color of the person’s skin. That makes it racial prejudice. Therefore, his friend is, in some small measure, racist.
Say you found out that your new coworker is black and you’re sad because you think that means he’ll have a poor work ethic. What would you call that attitude?
I gotta disagree right back at ya. Hand picking one definition of out seven, given by three different dictionaries, and then taking one definition of what prejudiced means, to get what the overall definition of “racist” means, isn’t being intellectually hones.
I wonder what the data would indicate as well. I know for myself, I tend to go overboard when I tip, simply because I’m aware of this unfortunate stereotype. So perhaps if you average the tips of black restaurant-goers, it will be lower than the average for white tippers, but with a bigger standard deviation. It may turn out that there wouldn’t be a statitistical difference between white tips and black tips, but that the ratio of poor-to-generous black tippers is greater than the same ratio for whites. Proportionately, you may find more high black tippers than high white tippers. Or maybe high black tippers are much more generous than poor black tippers are stingy. Hard data would allow us to see patterns like this.
But to answer the question, the observation is not racist. I have my own anectodal observations (some of them negative) about white people, and I don’t consider myself to be racist (at least that I’m aware of). I think the problem comes when people let their anecdotal experiences affect their behavior, or when they forget that their experiences are not necessarily universal. If a server were to look at me and give me crappy service just because they assumed I wasn’t going to be a good tipper anyway, well, that would be wrong. And they would also fulfill their prophesy.
Also, I would consider it bad form if your friend was going around, talking about how bad black people are at giving tips. Not that doing such a thing would be racist, but I think there’s something to be said for keeping certain judgements to yourself.
So what’s the point of posting this definition if you’re going to ignore what it says?
**rac·ism (rszm)
n.
The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
Discrimination or prejudice based on race.
American Heritage Dictionary**
Seems to me if you think black people have a poor work ethic, you’re saying that their race has something to do with their character and ability. You also view them as inferior to others, at least respect to this particular trait. It goes without saying that you are being prejudiced towards them, too.
I don’t see how the assumption that your black coworker will have a poor work ethic is anything but racist.
Basically sounds like your buddy has been guilty only of observation so far. When he makes the leap to saying, “I won’t deliver to that black neighborhood any more b/c I know I’m not going to get tipped.”, then it’s racism. But, you say that he doesn’t say such things. Just that he has observed a pattern in the customers that he has in fact delivered to. Observation doesn’t equal racism.
I don’t know if you remember this or not, but you’re talking to a dude who thinks discriminating against “black” names on job applications is 100% okey-dokey.
There’s nothing at all intellectually dishonest about that. When words have multiple meanings, all of those meanings are equally valid. It is no more intellectually dishonest to focus on one of those meanings to support an argument than it is to ignore that meaning to defeat it. One of the definitions of “racism” is “Discrimination or prejudice based on race.” This is an accurate descriptor of the behavior of the OP’s friend. Therefore, the OP’s friend is engaged in racism. There’s really not a lot of room for debate, here, unless you want to argue that the dictionary was mistaken for including that particular definition.
Wait, that’s totally wrong. It is not intellectually dishonest to focus on one of those meanings to support an argument. It is intellectually dishonest to ignore that meaning if it undercuts your argument.
I’m not ignoring what it says. The first definition says, “and that a particular race is superior to others”. Using the second definition by itself and saying that “stereotyping” is merely a synonym of “racism”, doesn’t fit with the other definitions.
It could also be because of cultural differences. But as the definition notes, “and that a particular race is superior to others”.
That’s really stretching things. Someone tipping big, doesn’t necessarily make one seem superior to anyone, nor does tipping small necessarily make one seem inferior.
There are various shades from “blacks are generally worse tippers… thus, I SUSPECT this black guy I’m delivering to is a bad tipper” to “thus, I ASSUME” to “thus, I KNOW”.
In any case, the important question for me is usually not what someone thinks or assumes, but what they do. If some guy is in charge of hiring for a math-oriented position, and believes that women are bad at math, it’s possible that he still gives each candidate the same object math test, and still hires the people who score about 90%. Maybe every time he hires a woman he thinks “wow, it’s amazing that a broad is as good at math as she is… she must be the exception that proves the rule or something”, but it’s possible that he’s still fair about it. However, I don’t see how anything of that sort applies to a pizza deliverer, unless he refuses to deliver to customers named “DeShaun”, or something of that sort.
However, all that said, making negative race-based generalizations, even very minor ones, seems to me to be absolutely positively clearly racism, albeit potentially minor and fairly harmless.
Some mid-end restaurant sit-down chains are reluctant to open locations in predominantly black, though still affluent communities (Prince George’s County, Maryland; south suburban Atlants, etc), not because the area is black, but because they have problems with hiring waitstaff.