Photo: Wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock
The video was racist.
By Sanika Nalgirkar — Written on Jan 27, 2022
A man posted on Reddit to ask people whether they think he was wrong for getting a server fired because of a TikTok video.
He explains that his mom had been visiting him in the States for a holiday. One day, while he was at work, his mom went to a cafe near his place.
He further explains that she is from a Southeast Asian country and didn’t know about tipping culture in the US.
When he gets home, he realized that his mom wouldn't have known to tip her server and immediately feels guilty for not letting her know and for depriving the server of a tip.
“I forget she doesn’t know about tipping here (where she lives, there’s a large service charge included so you don’t really tip in eateries, and def not in small ones).”
He then asked his mom who the server was, “I ask her which server, she describes someone I know as Jane (25ish F).”
The man went to the cafe the next day to apologize to the server. He even ended up paying the server a 70% tip.
He thought that was the end of it but fter a few days, his friend sent him a link to a TikTok video posted by Jane about his mom.
“Jane videoed the back and side of her head, made jokes about people coming over from 'f-ck knows' not tipping because its 'man eat dog world out there', quietly barked on video.”
As Jane had several followers, the video had many likes and comments. So the next day, the man went to the cafe to talk to Jane and ask her to take the video down.
However, Jane refused to take it down claiming “it’s her right”.
Just then, the manager of the cafe walked up to them and the man explained the situation.
“[The] manager comes over, Jane tells the tipping part and that she made a video 'out of desperation' and she wouldn’t take it down.”
The man even added more context for the manager by explaining that his mother saying she didn’t know about the tipping culture and he came back and apologized for it.
While the manager didn’t do anything right away, the man found out later that Jane had been fired.
That still wasn’t the end of it.
Jane’s mom posted on Facebook claiming how the man got Jane fired and how certain people don’t respect servers, conveniently leaving out the TikTok video.
The post caused quite a stir online with many people supporting Jane as they don’t know the whole story.
This caused the man to wonder whether he may have stepped a little too far. So he asked internet users what they thought. “Should I have dragged my 70 y/o mum in to apologise to Jane? What exactly can I do now?”
After knowing the whole story, people knew that the man wasn't wrong at all and called the server a racist.
One user commented, “that's just straight up racism and tipping is still not mandatory, even if it's common to tip. She doesn't even deserve a tip.”
Another user commented, “This isn't just about the not tipping, either. Her TikTok was being outright racist, and I expect that is a big part of why the manager's attitude changed upon seeing it.”
One user also commented about how Jane’s actions can affect the cafe in a negative way which is also why she was fired,
“She made a racist video that on its own might be construed negatively by a business because they would be concerned about negative backlash for employing her.”
One user also stated how the tipping culture isn’t a thing in many countries and many servers need to be aware and consider it,
“As much as we need to know about tipping practices, when we go somewhere as tourists, service workers should be aware, that customs are different around the world. There are countries, where tipping is completely unacceptable.”
Sanika Nalgirkar, M.F.A. is a writer and an Editorial Intern at YourTango who writes on entertainment & news, lifestyle, and pop culture topics.