The man at the center of a now-viral TikTok told The Daily Beast he’s torn between giving up a job he loves and sacrificing his “self worth.”
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Black Server Forced to Wait on Confederate-Loving Diners: ‘They Completely Dehumanized Me’
‘THAT WAS IT FOR ME’
The man at the center of a now-viral TikTok told The Daily Beast he’s torn between giving up a job he loves and sacrificing his “self worth.”
Brooke Leigh Howard
Reporter
Updated May. 02, 2023 10:43AM ET Published May. 01, 2023 3:57PM ET
Courtesy of Arthur Mandy
A viral
TikTok video has shown that old-school bigotry is not dead after a Black restaurant worker in Ohio was forced to put up with overt racist customers who repeatedly called him “boy” and nonchalantly threw around the N-word. Now, Arthur Mandy is torn over his job at Texas Roadhouse—a position he says he loves—after being publicly denigrated by diners decked out in Confederate garb.
In a
video uploaded Saturday by a user named Nani on TikTok, a Black woman described a tense scenario at the restaurant where she works.
“A party full of people wearing Confederate flag gear just tried to fucking come eat in our restaurant,” Nani said. “One of our Black servers had to take them.”
Nani explained that the table of white guests never spoke to the server or gave him eye contact. “They’re N-word this, N-word that, while he’s there at the table,” she said. “They’re not even trying to be quiet. They’re not even trying to stop.”
Nani said the server ended up walking outside because he got so emotional over his interaction with the table.
“I was getting so mad not only because of the table but the fact I had to watch and hear them treating one of the nicest caring souls I’ve ever met that way and they were still able to stay in the restaurant,” Nani wrote in the post. The video had well over 250,000 views by Monday afternoon.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast Monday, Mandy said he was the
Cincinnati-area server who waited on the table of neo-Confederates, who he claimed traveled in from
Kentucky. He also confirmed that Nani is his coworker at the West Chester Texas Roadhouse.
Mandy, 41, said he expected the party to be his last table for the night. A reservation was set for 11 people, but initially only a small group showed up—including a baby wrapped in a Confederate coat. But Mandy said he didn’t really notice the customers’ attire until more people joined the group.
“The rest of the party is walking in. The managers come and pull me aside and say, ‘Hey, if you have any issues with this table, let us know,’” Mandy said.
Mandy told The Daily Beast that he properly focused in on the group when an older, male customer sat down with them.
“I’m doing my spiel or whatever, things that we offer, things that we have, what he may like, and he says, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what, boy. Just get me a water with lemon.’”
Mandy said that he grabbed the guest’s water, but the man kept rushing to finish his drink to order another, as if he was challenging the waiter, consistently calling him “boy,” and never making eye contact. He said the rest of the party joined in on the older man’s tactics, laughing and snickering throughout. Mandy said he spent 20 minutes just on getting drinks.
“They think it’s a game,” he told The Daily Beast. “Now, they’re drinking their drinks as fast as they can, and they’re like, ‘Ey, boy, I need another one.’”
Most of the group wore clothes with the Confederate battle flag, he said, including a woman “covered head to toe” in the flag, including a sweatsuit, and face and neck tattoos. He claimed the parents took the coat off the baby, who Mandy estimated was barely a year old, to reveal a Confederate flag onesie underneath.
“This whole Confederate flag situation,” Mandy told The Daily Beast. “They don’t want people judging them because of how they dress or what flag they like, and they try to defend their right to have this flag. But that’s how they treat [Black people]: how we’re dressed, how we act, and what we do.”
Mandy, a father of four, said his heart was broken when a 5-year-old child with the group was directed to not speak to him while he served the table.
“He’s laughing, he’s engaging with me,” Mandy explained. “Then his mom chastises him in front of me, and she’s like, ‘You don’t need to talk. He has a job to do. He needs to concentrate.’”
“They can only concentrate on one thing at a time,” the older man allegedly added.
“For me, that was it,” Mandy told The Daily Beast. “That was it for me…emotionally.”
The party allegedly ordered more than $400 worth of food, but Mandy said they complained so much that they had their bill knocked down to a fraction of that. They also continued to distract other customers in the restaurant during a busy night, loudly using the N-word and creating a scene. Mandy said it got to be so much that he had to walk outside and cry.
“They completely dehumanized me in front of the entire restaurant,” he said, adding that he was cautious about responding to their disrespectful behavior. “I’m trying to be on my best behavior because I don’t want to get in trouble.”
Mandy said he refused to go back to the table, which upset the party. After receiving their food, the group allegedly told the manager that Mandy messed up their orders and that they wouldn’t leave until he made another visit to their table.
At that point, restaurant managers were so concerned they told all Black staff members to stay away from the dining area until the group left, Mandy said. When they eventually did leave, they loitered in the parking lot as if they were waiting for Mandy, he added, and only left the premises entirely once a manager threatened to call the cops.
On Sunday, Nani uploaded a
followup video with Mandy’s contact information for anyone who wanted to send him tips, so far receiving over $1,000 in donations.
Mandy said he appreciated the support from his coworkers. The fiasco upset white teammates, had others crying, and caused many of his colleagues to check on his well-being throughout the night. He even claimed his managers tried to do their best with handling the situation.
However, he accused the restaurant’s white owner, Joe Palmer, of not taking the ordeal seriously. Rather than staying at the restaurant after the customers in Confederate attire walked in, he left early even though Mandy claimed he knew his employees felt uncomfortable. Mandy also said Palmer didn’t give direction for staff to kick the guests out. Instead, the other managers on duty had to make that call themselves, he said.
Now, he wants to file a lawsuit so that other service employees won’t have similar experiences.
“If I could go back and do it over again, I would take that table because I wouldn’t want anybody else to feel what I felt and what I still feel,” Mandy said, adding that he hasn’t been able to sleep since.
“Business should not come first; money shouldn’t come first. And that’s the perception that I have…of my boss. It was really hard for me to even think about going back to work because it’s like knowing he doesn’t care about me.”
Mandy also said he’s grappling with keeping a job that helps him provide for his family but would make him “sacrifice [his] pride and… self-worth.”
In a statement to The Daily Beast, a Texas Roadhouse spokesperson said the company was investigating the incident.
“Texas Roadhouse does not condone any form of harassment or discrimination by guests towards employees. We also strive to maintain a work environment of mutual respect for our employees and guests,” the statement read.
The spokesperson said Mandy wasn’t made to wait on the table, and a manager “immediately took over” once he felt uncomfortable. The spokesperson also said the neo-Confederate group would no longer be allowed at Texas Roadhouse.
The owner was also supposed to hold meeting with staff Monday night regarding the incident and to “reinforce his support that if anyone is uncomfortable or feels disrespected to let Management know,” the company said.
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