“Remove these place settings.”
Michael felt his eyes widen, but he lowered his head in silent deference. Mister Cole was Boss. And what Boss said, went, kind or not, right or not.
There will be no seating of the couple who just walked in, dressed in their no-doubt-best, stars glowing in their eyes for each other.
Wrong skin.
“We are booked. Perhaps another place.” Mister Cole’s false-polite voice. Reserved for any he thought strayed out of their lane.
The woman stared pointedly at the empty table, at Michael’s dish-laden hands.
“Pity,” she said.
Shame burned Michael’s cheeks. The plates turned lead.
For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers
Photo prompt © Sandra Crook
Na'ama Yehuda 
Hateful to think this kind of thing could still happen ❤️
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Hateful indeed! Alas, it could still happen, and does (in home-values, in salaries, in being approved for loans, in education access, in access to opportunity) and will happen more if those who seek to diminish the realities of racism, are allowed to repaint history as if slaves ‘got the benefits of skills’ from slavery and if they succeed in banning the teaching of reality to children, and children’s access to relevant literacy, lest they know the whole of what America had been built on, and how race inequities continue to permeate so many interactions.
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Not cool of the owner.
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No. Not cool at all. And yet, it happened all the time, and in some places, it still happens. For whatever skin or clothing or couple-combination some deem inadmissible in their establishment, and who make the rejection clear without saying as much and by gaslighting it as something else. And everywhere this happens, there are those who know, and see, and yet are also being silenced. By fear for losing their job, by fear of violence of some form, by learned acquiescence, by not wanting to make waves, by not knowing any other way. And there are all too many who see, and don’t mind, for in their mind they need to feel superior to ‘someone’ or else they do not feel like they themselves are ‘someone’, and it makes them feel ‘special’ to witness another’s humiliation and ‘know’ that they are supposedly safe from the same, because of their perceived affiliation.
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A very tragic truth of society, even today.
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Exactly! You said it perfectly.
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👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
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No matter where we go, racism, otherism exists and seems to be invincible. A powerful story. At least Michael knows shame.
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Thank you. Yes, it exists but I don’t believe it is invincible, as long as we speak up and make a stir and not accept it and refuse to minimize its aggression – be it major- or micro-aggression – and as long as we refuse to allow those who want to present only their version of history as to avoid facing the truth of hate and harm in the name of profit and domination. And, yes, at least Michael knows shame, though the owner is the one who really ought to know it, and may never. That’s sad indeed.
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Great story, Na’ama, and so much said in so few words. I guess in Michael’s defense, he needed a job, but what excuse for the attitude of thenowner?
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Exactly, though the job exacts its own price, too. As for the owner? His excuse to himself, if he even pauses to wonder at his prejudice, is probably that he is entitled to keep ‘his establishment’ a certain way, and to ‘certain standards’ that to his own myopic view include excluding anyone who he needs to feel superior to (though of course, he is superior to no one, and never will be).
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My last act in the employ of Mr. Cole, would be to turn around and re-set the table, seat the guests, and give them the best meal and service they’d ever had in their lives. There is a line that must not and will not be crossed.
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I agree. And … I also know that there are those who don’t feel they have the privilege to do that – either because they believe they cannot lose the job, or fear retaliation, or are otherwise paralyzed by reality. But, yeah, I agree that I would like that to be Michael’s last act in Mr. Cole’s employ. At least in fantasy. Though we both know that acts of defiance carry costs not many will be willing to endure.
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I like how you give us different viewpoints in this – the boss, the waiter, the woman. Some lovely phrases – ‘wrong skin’ , ‘The plates turned lead.’
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Thank you, Margaret! I am so glad you liked. Thank you for reading and commenting.
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Is the job really worth it, I would ask myself.
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I would think not … though I also am aware that there are many instances where people put up with what is not worth it, because the alternative feels worse, or the realities allow them little choice (which is, in of itself, part of the ugliness of situations we as humans and a society should not tolerate the presence of or the minimization of or the gaslighting about).
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Na’ama Y’karah,
This story makes me burn with anger. Sad but terribly true to life. Well done, my friend.
Shalom and may your name be written in the Book of Life,
Rochelle
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as it ought … thank you, my dear friend! I’m glad the injustice resonated (as it ought) and yes, terribly sad and alas, terribly true to life. Shana Tova and Chatima Tova,
Na’ama
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