I was working at a Middle Eastern restaurant a few years back when we caught a break in the action. The main front line cook (a young Iraqi refugee with a tenuous grasp of English) was out back smoking. As the prep guy, my work was caught up so I went out back to join him. The new guy, a Syrian refugee who was being trained to work the line, was on break and he wandered over towards us leaving the restaurant effectively without anyone to plate an order. Predictably, some customers came in.
The main cook told the trainee to go see about the order. The latter replied that he was on break and that he wasn't yet familiar with all the orders so he said the main cook should go see about the order. For my part, I was ashamed at my co-workers for not getting up to do their jobs. In the restaurant business, as with most business, the customer should be catered to. When they place an order they should see hustle, professionalism, and friendliness. I thought to say something but eventually one of them (I can't remember which) got up to take the order. The moment passed and would have been something we all forgot until we got the phone call.
My co-worker Malak (a Palestinian-American) took a call from a woman who demanded to know if we had a problem serving mixed race couples. She said that she had been in earlier and that the staff had been slow to serve her and her boyfriend and said that if we had a problem serving mixed-race couples maybe we were in the wrong business. Malak apologized profusely for the slow service but stated that we were inclusive an had nothing against people of any race or religion.
For my part, I wanted to grab the phone and tell the lady that our cooks aren't racist, they're lazy but I honestly didn't think it would make a difference. From my experience, when people impute motives onto the actions of others, it can be next to impossible to detach them from these views. Never mind the fact that it boggles the mind to try to think of a reason why anyone would think Arab refugees would be emotionally invested in the black/white American racial dynamic. This lady received poor service and made a snap judgment about the reason behind it.
In relating this story to one of my friends as a caveat against knee-jerk reactions regarding race in America, I was accused of being a racial apologist and covering for racists. That is not the case at all. Rather, I think that if we, as ethnic minorities, want our concerns to be taken seriously we must call out the genuine demonstrable cases of racism and avoid imputing race as the factor in cases where we might be honestly mistaken. We must not serve up the potentially innocent along with the guilty for condemnation or we run the risk of condemning our own cause with frivolous and potentially damaging claims. If our rallying cry is for justice, we must hold ourselves accountable to that same standard. In the continuing battle against racism, we have enough actual enemies to stand up against. It is not to our advantage to weaken the cause by fighting the wrong fight.
