Local Diner Charges White Customers With Privilege Fee

CNN

Local Diner Charges White Customers With Privilege Fee

Customers pay more or less for their meals depending on their race and gender.

Walter Crockpot
Daily Bungle

Al Beno and his family had expected a normal meal when they decided to try out a new restaurant, Shaniqua’s Place.

At first, their overall experience seemed satisfactory enough. The food was cooked to perfection, the service was hospitable, and the prices seemed reasonable—that is, until it came time to actually pay.

After paying for his family’s meal, Beno examined his restaurant bill more closely and discovered that his total had been increased though several additional fees.

Aside from the price, sales tax, and gratuity, his tab also included a “privilege surcharge” with a friendly reminder at the bottom for him to “check your privilege.”

When he inquired about this surcharge, he discovered that the restaurant levied an additional sliding-scale fee that varies based upon the customer's race and gender.

For example, white customers are charged an additional $1, while men are charged an additional 77 cents. This means that white men such as Beno pay an additional $1.77 for their meals.

As for women and people of color, they receive a “negative fee” that decreases, rather than increases, the price of their meal. Women receive 77 cents in savings, while blacks and other non-whites save $1.

Under this sliding pay scale, for an $8.00 burger and fries, a white male customer would pay $9.77, while a black female customer would only pay $6.23.

Understandably, this “privilege surcharge” has been leaving white customers such as Beno less that satisfied with their meals.

“This is ridiculous,” he commented. “If this were happening to black customers, people would be calling this restaurant out for discrimination. But it’s not racist if it happens to white folks? Give me a break!”

The restaurant’s owner, Shaniqua Jones, who opened her restaurant after graduating with her business degree and minor in social justice studies, explained that she implemented this pay scale as a way to make her customers more aware of their “privileges” and to “level the playing field” within their otherwise “white supremacist” and “patriarchal” society.

“It may not seem fair that my white male customers have to pay extra to eat at my restaurant, but it’s also unfair that society grants them benefits and privileges that their female and colored counterparts do not have,” Jones said. “They are more than capable of paying extra for their meals, and that should be a small price for them to pay to create a much more equitable society.”

Several lawsuits have been filed against the restaurant, but none have yet been followed through.

The local chapter of the Americans Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently released a statement announcing that it would not consider civil lawsuits against the restaurant, explaining that the fee does not count as discrimination, as “reverse discrimination” against white people does not exist.

“The ‘privilege surcharge’ implemented by this restaurant, along with similar diversity measures such as affirmative action and equal pay, seeks to correct systematic gender and racial inequalities within our society," ACLU Lawyer Slyme Bau wrote. "Trying to ensure equality for the less privileged is not reverse discrimination against the privileged.”

While the new restaurant has received complaints from white customers, it has also proven quite popular with customers outside of the white male demographic who enjoy the extra savings.

The restaurant and its “privilege surcharge” have also received praise from notable leaders in the black community, including President Barack Obama and Rev. Al Sharpton.

“The only way to ensure that all individuals receive equal treatment within our society is to take from those to whom much is given and give to those to whom much has been denied, and this little restaurant has taken a brave, bold step in leading our society in that direction,” Sharpton wrote on his Facebook page.

#####

The Daily Bungle
“News so messed up, it almost seems real.”

******

Honestly, I had written this story last week before news broke out about Starbuck's epic fail "Race Together" campaign. On one hand, I want to believe that Starbuck's failure is proof enough that a policy such as this would never fly; on the other hand, to quote the movie Snatch, you should never underestimate the predictability of stupidity--or at least liberal white guilt.