Consumer Racial Profiling in U.S. Restaurants: Exploring Subtle Forms of Service Discrimination against Black Diners

Abstract

In this article we advance scholarship on consumer racial profiling (CRP), in general, and the practice as it occurs in restaurant establishments, in particular, by presenting findings from a survey of restaurant consumers that was designed to ascertain the degree to which discriminate service is evident in black and white customers' perceptions and evaluations of their servers' behaviors. We found no evidence of interracial differences in subjects' perceptions of being the recipients of subtle server behaviors that are discretionally conveyed (e.g., recommend entrée, compliment food choice, joke with, etc.) or those that constitute standard markers of service quality (e.g., eye contact, smiling, expressing appreciation, etc.). We did, however, find some evidence of CRP in customers' perceptions of their servers' attentiveness/promptness. Additionally, we found that African Americans tend to subjectively appraise their servers' performance less favorably than their white counterparts and this is the case even when other indicators of service discrimination are held constant. Findings taken as a whole suggest that servers' extend similar cues of hospitality but do so in qualitatively different ways (e.g., less sincere) across racial groups. We discuss the implications of these findings and conclude by encouraging additional scholarship on the subtle nature of racial discrimination in consumer settings.

Economic Motivations and Moral Controls Regulating Discrimination Against Black and Hispanic Diners

“…; Brewster et al. ; Lynn and Brewster ). These findings suggest that servers may continue to receive poorer tips from black and Hispanic customers even if they consistently give these customers the same service as whites (cf.…”

“…Further, servers' perceptions of interracial tipping differences appear to be at least partially grounded in reality, as blacks/Hispanics have been shown to tip relatively less than whites (cf. Lynn and Thomas‐Haysbert ; Lynn , , , , ; Noll and Arnold ; Leodoro and Lynn ; Lynn, Jabbour and Kim ; Brewster, Lynn, and Cocroft ; Lynn and Brewster ). Thus, servers are thought to give less attention or lower quality service to customers of color (i.e., discriminate) because they do not perceive that these guests will compensate them fairly for their efforts (cf.…”

“…; Brewster et al. ; Lynn and Brewster ). Likewise, although the data are much more equivocal, some evidence also validates servers' perceptions of Hispanic customers as being less generous in their tipping practices relative to whites (Lynn , ).…”

“…As Brewster et al. () point out, in the absence of such research the nature of race‐based service will remain elusive, thus, making it difficult to resolve.…”

Public and Academic Questions on Race: The Problem with Racial Controversies

“…As Brown et al. (:4) notes, “Today, many white Americans are concerned only with whether they are, individually, guilty of something called racism.” Most Americans, of all colors, vociferously deny that they are racist, even those who use and believe racial stereotypes (Myers :105) or engage in behaviors formerly labeled racism (Brewster, Lyn, and Cocroft ; Johnson, Rush, and Feagin :103) . The quest for racial innocence is not exclusively the province of the political Right.…”