Access Politics
A New Orleans restaurant is charging white customers more for their food. Yes, really. Nigerian chef Tunde Wey runs a restaurant called SAARTJ and thinks that white customers will be willing to fork over $18 extra for a meal. Indy100 reports:
Much like the cafe in Melbourne, Australia which charged a ‘man-tax’ due to the gender pay gap, SAARTJ is charging an increase to highlight the racial pay gap in New Orleans.
In 2013, a study found that the average household income of an African-American in the city was 54 per cent lower than that of a white person.
Um, okay. On an Instagram post, the restaurant makes a more grandiose claim: “This is more than lunch/ this is an experiment/ how can you impact racial wealth disparity? (and the jollof is on point too)” See it below:
White people don’t have to pay the extra money, but the chef is asking white customers to consider paying more. Yes, only white customers.
The chef told Civil Eats:
The standard price was available to all customers, while the suggested price was offered to white customers.
The pricing differential represents the wage disparity between black and white households in New Orleans.
The net profit collected from sales at the suggested price was redistributed to customers of colour.
So, can you imagine going into a restaurant and having to deal with this? I can’t imagine that anyone would voluntarily be lectured about “white privilege” just to get food. He continued:
Refusing to pay more comes off as anti-social and people don’t want to be judged for that.
People look on the other side of the till and see me standing there and they’re thinking that I’m judging them.
If they couldn’t pay a higher amount, they gave a me a list of caveats why they couldn’t.
Well, I wonder why people feel judged? Maybe because they actually are being judged.
Image Credit: Pexels
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