A Denny’s in Lake City, Fla., was exposed after churchgoer, Elijah Henderson Jr., arrived to the restaurant and asked a waitress to seat him and a party of 25 other churchgoers.
She claimed she couldn’t serve him because the restaurant was understaffed. But shortly after, another large group was seated.
“Is it the color of my skin Because everybody else was eating and drinking, and she was, like, ‘I am not going to be able to accommodate you all,'” Henderson told News4 Jax. “There was another family that came in right after me, she was, like,’You guys go ahead and have a seat. I will be with you momentarily.'”
Henderson also apparently recorded and live-streamed the incident on Facebook.
“I feel as since I’m African-American, that’s why she doesn’t feel like she should accommodate us. I don’t understand,” Henderson said on the video which appears to have since been removed. “I am not trying to understand, the only thing I do know is that they are wrong, they are wrong for how they treated us. Point blank, I don’t care what you look like, or where you come from, I just want equality.”
The restaurant issued a statement about not tolerating discrimination and has apparently terminated the racist employee.
The chain is based in South Carolina, and has been plagued by a racist history for almost 30 years.
In the early 90’s, the Department of Justice settled federal charges with the racist establishment when it was discovered that it had discriminated against Black customers in California by requiring some to pay cover charges and to pay for their meals in advance, among other practices. Denny’s paid a total of $54 million dollars.
Not even that hefty fine stopped their discriminatory practices as they were still practicing old tricks per a Denny’s in Washington, D.C.
It was an older white couple who brought the biased practices to the light.
Although Denny’s has tried to bury its racist past, a simple Google search will provide more than enough information on the chain. The biased practices aren’t specific to any one region.
