“Insecure” star Amanda Seales recently retweeted a post that called out the racist past of tipping and she explained the history to TMZ.
On May 19, freelance writer Beandrea July posted an exchange from the podcast, “Lovett or Leave It,” on which Seals appeared.
“Modern day tipping is literally based on slavery and the restaurant industry is more regressive than feudal Europe,” said Saru Jayaraman, Co-Founder and President of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United.
“You just blew my entire mind right now,” Seals said, which July echoed.
@SaruJayaraman: Modern day tipping is literally based on slavery and the restaurant industry is more regressive than feudal Europe. @amandaseales: You just blew my entire mind right now.
Me: Same. Same https://t.co/krqRmXMgnA— B. '20 #RadioRace July (she/y’all) (@beandreadotcom) May 19, 2018
Jayaraman, who has been working for years to end the modern tipping industry, explained to The Washington Post in 2016 that although tipping has origins in the feudal system, “when tipping came to the United States, it had a real racial tinge to it, because, originally, the workers who earned tips were almost exclusively Black workers — they were newly freed slaves.”
“I was really surprised to understand that basically, the whole tipping culture comes from the fact that at the end of slavery when there was reconstruction and Black people were still put in servitude positions,” Seales — who noted she doesn’t like to discuss things she’s not knowledgeable about — explains to TMZ Sunday, May 20. “It was like the country decided, ‘Well, we still don’t want to pay you, so you’re gonna still have to earn your money by simply serving people for free and that still continues to this day.’”
In response to Seales, several commenters took issue with the history lesson.
“She needs to shut up with this racist propaganda crap, 75 percent of servers and waitresses totally suck at their jobs and don’t even deserve tips anyways,” someone claimed. “The 25 percent that do a good job deserve the good tips, has nothing to do with color.”
“This is just an excuse to not tip because these people are cheap as hell,” another said.
“Shut up lady — your race doesn’t know when to let go — here’s a tip — SHUT UP,” someone else remarked.
