I took my Aunt to Marco Polo last week and things got off to a bad start. I had been there many times before with my Director of Operations (who is caucasian). I asked for bread and olives to be brought to the table and was told 'we don't do that until an order is placed, because people come in and eat the bread and get full then don't order'. What? I had never heard that before..........my Aunt was highly offended. Overlooking that incident, I took my other Aunt there over the weekend. We were seated and placed our orders. I went to wash my hands and when I got back, I was HORRIFIED! One of the wait staff was doing a Stepin Fetchit routine. He even went so far as to do a shooing motion toward our table. The rest of the staff got a big kick out of it, looking at us and laughing. I found out from my Aunt that it started while I was away from the table, the staring and snickering by other wait staff. When I approached the Manager, he claimed not to know of a Stepin Fetchit. For those of you that don't - Stepin Fetchit's typical film persona and stage name have long been synonymous with the stereotype of the servile, shiftless, simple-minded black man in early 20th Century American film. Needless to say this is VERY hurtful. Unfortunately the Manager continued to ask how we knew this was directed at us, even though we were the only black people in the restaurant. I am appalled at the lack of acknowledgement, compassion, and responsibility on the part of the Manager. We walked out of the restaurant and I will NEVER eat there again, nor will I book the 25 people each month for lunch for my company.
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