Restaurant Racially Profiled A Celebrity Musician
A simple solution to ending the practice for patrons of color
October 22, 2023
Author’s note: two articles on separate incidents by veteran Medium Writers, Floyd Mori and William Spivey have been added to the sources list.
It says a lot about a nonwhite male who grew up in South Africa under apartheid and later traveled the world yet never experienced the incident that occurred recently in the U.S.
In the case of Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and guitarist Jonathan Butler, the incident happened in California wine country.
The Back Story
After performing at a concert and taking a break before the next session, Butler took a group to a restaurant named Goose & Gander in St. Helena, California, on recommendation from a close friend’s rave review.
According to Butler, he paid the hefty bill using his American Express card; and left a generous tip. But after departing to the parking lot, the Asian manager followed Butler’s group outside and approached Butler to ask if he had taken care of the wait staff for his table.
Insulted by the question and the manager’s hostile manner, after the manager left the parking lot, Butler went back…
