I work at Laclede's and recently we had a very interesting issue come up regarding race. Last Friday, during Happy Hour, we had a table of 4 black women come in. They saw that the only table open by the bar had no chairs at it, and simply asked the bartender if she could bring them chairs. Seeing as our bartenders are not supposed to leave the bar during happy hour, she simply told them that she was unable to, but that there were plenty of open seats on the other side of the restaurant. Furthermore, another group came in, consisting of 5 white males, who had the same dilemma. However, instead of asking the bartender to bring them chairs, they asked a server who happened to be doing nothing at the time. The server brought them chairs without hesitation. When the original table of black women saw this, they immediately complained that this was a racial issue.
Initially, I never would have considered this to be an issue of race. However, after stepping back from the situation and looking at it from their point of view, I can sort of see why they felt that way. This situation made me realize how much race affects certain people and how one situation can be interpreted by different people in different ways. I think that because I tend to ignore race when dealing with people that come into Lacledes, it wouldn't have initially occurred to me that this situation was racist, but it was obviously upsetting to our customers. In a way, I think that this shows that there are people that still feel very oppressed because of their race, and therefore shows that race is still a major issue within our country. Any thoughts?