Server Confronts Teens Who Wrote "Black" on Gratuity Line — "Therefore You Don't Have to Tip?"
Published June 12 2023, 2:02 p.m. ET
A TikTok creator who is also a server and shares content using the handle @being.amira is going viral after she confronted customers who passed on tipping her — but not because she didn't offer good service.
Instead, as Amira shared, the teens wrote the word "black" on the gratuity line. While you may have guessed what this means, Amira followed them out of the restaurant to find out for sure. And let's just say she got the last laugh.
The server knew what "black" meant when the teens wrote it on the tip line — but they claimed not to.
Amira, who is Black, was not having it when a group of teens left their bill on the table sans tip. Instead, the word "black" was written on the gratuity line.
The server proceeded to leave the establishment where she works and found the group of diners outside.
"Hey guys. I just want a little bit of clarification," the upset server called out to the teens after they left the eyebrow-raising bill behind. "What does this mean?"
Upon being questioned, the teen who speaks in the video seemed to have no clue what the word "black" meant.
"You don't know what black means?" she pressed the befuddled teen, but he stuck to his guns, claiming not to know what it meant that he wrote the word "black" on the receipt.
That's when the creator challenged him, "You're Black, therefore you don't have to tip?"
Seemingly caught, the teen offered to tip Amira, which she didn't take.
Upon her posting the short TikTok, thousands of comments soon flooded in with reactions.
Commenters praised the TikTok creator as a hero for confronting the teens — and she offered more details of the interaction.
It wasn't long before commenters to Amira's TikTok agreed that she was basically a hero for having the guts to not just let this group get away with such bad behavior.
"They're so bold until you confront them," one commenter scoffed.
"I love the sound of their group's awkward silence," another person snickered.
Meanwhile, someone else joked, "Plot twist: He thought gratuity meant ethnicity."
Amira also created a follow-up video to address some confusion and answer questions about her viral video, noting she had no intention of exposing the teens' faces or identities, despite calls to do so. Indeed, she wasn't looking to "ruin their lives" but felt her "confronting them was the karma that they needed."
She also clarified that she didn't take any money from them, although it appeared that way in the video. Instead, that was the original check that she walked away with — a photo of which Amira also shared.
The server subsequently posted other follow-up videos addressing baffled commenters who couldn't believe her claim that she makes $2.13 per hour. Amira stressed how she relies on tips to pay her bills. Her main point was basically that she makes good money with tips — although she does "get stiffed" regularly.
Amira made it clear that she "doesn't chase down" every customer who doesn't tip her. The point was that these teens could have left the line blank, but chose to write "black" instead, and this was not OK.
