‘Black students don’t tip’

Texas restaurant says forcing African American kids to pay gratuity is not racist

A restaurant in Cypress, Texas has come under fire after an employee allegedly said that black students “don’t tip.”

Brittany Blakney told KPRC that she and her friends went to Locatelli’s restaurant to celebrate graduating from Prairie View A&M University.

Blakney said that she was surprised to find out that the server had already added a 15% gratuity to her check.

“He said, ‘Black students from Prairie View don’t tip,’” she recalled.

Blakney said that the restaurant’s manager defended the server and told her to leave.

“It was definitely embarrassing because she even threatened to call the police. Nobody was belligerent. Nobody was loud … cursing at her … anything,” Blakney explained.

The restaurant’s manager, Kerrie Salazar, argued that the server had a right to add a gratuity to a party of six. But she admitted that the rule was not always enforced, but she insisted that it was not applied racially.

“It’s very frustrating for the servers because that’s the way that they make their income,” Salazar insisted. “I just realized that the situation was not going to be defused unless I asked her to simply leave the restaurant.”