An employee of a Texas Buffalo Wild Wings was fired after making a racially charged statement to a customer.
“I smiled and she said, ‘Don’t take this racially, but sometimes the only way you can tell with black people is from their eyes and their smiles, because it’s so dark,’” Tasha Lee told Fox 26.
The waitress made the comments after she asked Lee for her I.D. when she ordered a drink.
Buffalo Wild Wings waitress is fired over racist ID comment after African-American woman orders drink https://t.co/peddyWAsYe
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) July 12, 2019
“I was in disbelief, I was shocked. I couldn’t really, it was hard to believe that I had heard what I heard,” Lee added.
The Buffalo Wild Wings location is in Tomball, Texas. According to the website for the Tomball Economic Development Corporation, the city’s total population is 11,934 people. The median age of people living in Tomball is 39, and the majority of the population is 65-years-of-age and older.
Almost 75 percent of people who live in Tomball are white, while only about 9.5 percent of people are black, which is the largest minority race in the city. When looking at statistics for ethnicity rather than race, Hispanic is the largest minority, with just over 24 percent of the population.
Lee is not sure whether the waitress was white or Hispanic. She had told Lee that both her son-in-law and grandson are black. Lee said she has been to this Buffalo Wild Wings location before, but has never had this server.
“I mean, to tell a black person that the only way you can tell it’s them from their picture is from the whites of their eyes, and the whites of their teeth it’s absolutely unacceptable,” Lee told Fox 26.
The restaurant got Lee another waitress, paid for her meal, and sent her a $10 gift card to cover the drinks she purchased.
Regardless of whether the comment by the waitress was innocent, it had a negative result on her employment.
“The employee in this case no longer works for Buffalo Wild Wings,” Buffalo Wild Wings said in a statement to Fox 26. “We value an inclusive environment and have no tolerance for discrimination of any kind. We’ve offered our deepest apologies to the guest.”
Rat Falls Out of Ceiling At a Buffalo Wild Wings
Last month, a Texas woman was on vacation dining at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Los Angeles when a rat fell from the ceiling and landed on her menu, ABC13 reported.
“I heard a noise and we all looked up and down came the rat,” said Alisha Norman, via ABC13.
She posted photos of the downed rat to her Facebook page.
“It was disgusting, it was still alive. Its heart was still beating,” she told ABC13.
ABC13 asked her if she would continue to dine at Buffalo Wild Wings locations when she returned home to Houston.
“I’m feeling like I’m done with Buffalo Wild Wings,” she responded.
A spokesperson for the restaurant released a statement, obtained by ABC13.
“The isolated incident at the Westchester-area Buffalo Wild Wings in Los Angeles yesterday was unfortunate. The center where the restaurant is located is undergoing significant construction and we are confident it was directly related. We hold Buffalo Wild Wings to the highest operating standards and promptly closed the restaurant for proper remediation, cleaning and sanitization. We look forward to reopening soon to once again serve our guests in the Westchester area.”
