roachboy, I was shocked that this could be published in a restaurant industry publication, when I first read about Dr. Lynn's research, in 2002:
Quote:
http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing.../746742-1.html
Ethnic differences in tipping: a matter of familiarity with tipping norms.
By Lynn, Michael
Publication: Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly
Date: Sunday, February 1 2004
(page 4)
(5) This black-white difference in tipping is not due to income or other demographic differences between the two ethnic groups, because that difference remained both sizable and statistically significant after controlling for sex, age, education, income, and household size.
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I don't mean to trivialize violent crime by comparing it to tipping....I present it because it is a well studied and reported behavorial trait, peculiar to one group of people....not necessarily to a race, but to a subset of the American public, categorized in a way that could easily be dismissed as politically incorrect or prejudiced.... but my anecdotal experience says that it isn't.
It also seems a valid comparison, because it is about attitude and behavior that transcends income and education.
.....the "problem", is....my anecdotal experience, before reading it, completely supported it. I also have enough firsthand experience to know that there are exceptions, wonderful people who have been gracious enough to influence me not to prejudge. It isn't the numbers of these gracious individuals who cause that positive influence, in my experience they are few and far between, but they are there.
I "get" what you are asking, about "the culture of african americans". I also "got" the Wapo author's point in the opinion piece in my last post. New Hampshire has a one percent African American population, yet I read that caucasians are incarcerated at 1/9 the per capita rate (286 per 100,000, vs. 2650 ) of that state's African American population. My reaction was that it was an obvious symptom of injustice. What should my reaction be to the violent crime rates in affluent Prince George's and Dekalb?
How do we have "balance" if we don't talk about it. I can easily fall into a conversation with a waitstaff co-worker who is African American, about the problem of the African American public's attitude towards tipping for dining service. The reason is because we all live equally, with the effects of it...share the same experience, every shift.
We go home after work, and we do not share the same experience. My neighbors are not shooting at me....Neither are Scalia's or Thomas's !