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Yesterday we published a story on @Eater_DC where three Black, female bartenders spoke out about systemic racism in the hospitality industry and how it’s affected their careers (thread)
Allison Lane ( @allieblablah) says she always juggles more than one job because that gives her options in case managers aren’t treating her well.
“I don’t trust this industry. When I get hired for jobs, I’m not committed to you until I see you’re a good manager.” — @allieblablah
She says managers trying to enforce a standard of “professionalism” have admonished her for “talking back” rather than take her questions seriously. She& #39;s been told she& #39;s "glaring" when she was just standing with a blank face.
“I often felt like a child,” @allieblablah says. “It felt like I was being punished for having adult thoughts or being angry.
“I think some people are allowed to have bad days at work, aren’t they? Why can’t I? … Why does that dictate why I’m employable or not? It seems so unfair. ... How can that be if this white guy over here is just saying wild shit all the time?” — @allieblablah
Like many Black workers in the industry, she feels she hasn’t always received adequate training. Training with White men can be awkward because sometimes there& #39;s no dialogue. They just assume she knows the technical aspects of the job.
“Just because I’m confident doesn’t mean I know what I’m doing. It means I’ll figure it out, which is fantastic. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t train me the same way as somebody you assume is trainable.” — @allieblablah
Now that she’s back at work at @ElectricCoolAid, some customers still bring their disparaging comments or push back when asked to wear a mask
“People’s classism shows, but there’s an extra weight to it when my life is in danger" — @allieblablah
Andra “AJ” Johnson, the managing partner and beverage director at Latin cocktail bar Serenata, started the Back to Black pop-up to amplify the message of social justice activists and raise money for anti-racist organizations.
“We do this because we love it, and we’re not allowed to flourish and be nourished and enriched in our jobs because of the color of our skin," AJ says
"... That is — it’s heartbreaking at the end of the day, and it’s not fair.”
Johnson says she’s faced fewer obstacles than many of her Black peers, but ultimately “fine dining didn’t want to see somebody like me.”
She was once asked in a job interview, “Can you do something with that?” She needed a minute to realize the question was about her dreadlocks. She was asked by a manager, in the middle of service, to dance in the dining room.
She’s been told she wasn’t dressing feminine enough. She’s had customers insinuate what type of food she likes, and interactions with people who didn’t believe she was a manager, let alone had an ownership stake.
“It’s all-encompassing. But at the end of the day, like, I do this because I love this," she says
I think being a Black person in America, you end up going, ‘Welp, there’s nothing else that I can do about it, so I’m going to take it, and I’m going to learn how to control my temper, and I’m going to move on. I’m going to move on.’"
"It’s not healthy mentally. And it gets a lot of people down, myself included. I don’t think that there are too many people of color in any job, let alone the restaurant industry, that have not been expected to perform to someone else’s preconceived notions of them.”
Kapri Robinson, a bartender at Reliable Tavern in Petworth, says over the course of her career managers were more concerned with stopping her from “talking back” than listening to feedback about what her team needed.
She’s felt like she was being labeled as “the angry black woman” or a constant complainer when she was trying to foster a better work environment.
“It feels like they want me to feel crazy,” Robinson says. “You want me to feel insane because you’re trying to impose your reality of me on me.”
In Robinson’s experience, when managers approach Black employees like they’re hostile, like they’ll automatically react in a loud, aggressive way, that leads to aggravation, then dejection.
“It creates frustration, but it also creates a sense of hopelessness, almost, in which I feel as though there is no point to be doing this. … I fight that feeling all the time, because someone has to say something, is what I believe."
"What we see all the time in this industry is that people of color, Black women, do not continue to keep talking. They shut their mouths. They keep their eyes down and do what they need to do to keep a job.”
For more on how these workers are using their professional talents to advocate for change, you can read the whole story here in the comprehensive @Eater package covering Drinking in America https://dc.eater.com/2020/10/14/21504102/dc-bartenders-blm-social-justice-activism">https://dc.eater.com/2020/10/1...
