Last week I was in New York. I was in town for a meeting with CNBC, and Armando Tam was in town to meet with our local NAHREP chapters in the area. On Tuesday, we were having breakfast at the Soho Grand Hotel and were seated next to a young white couple who seemed annoyed. It turns out they had been waiting an excessive amount of time for their breakfast to arrive. Once it did arrive, they ate their food and defiantly told their server that they weren’t going to pay their bill and stormed out. The server calmly said “Ok” and proceeded to clear their table. I have to admit, I was a bit shocked because I had never seen anything like that before. The couple was so matter of fact with their declaration, and the server didn’t even blink. We’ve all been subject to bad service at restaurants before, but it never occurred to me that not paying the bill was an option. I know that not everything is about race, but Armando and I did discuss whether the restaurant’s reaction would have been different if the patrons were Black… or Hispanic for that matter. It made us think about the two Black men in Philly who were arrested in Starbucks for no reason and whether the public would have been as sympathetic if it turned out they had refused to pay their bill because of bad service. I can honestly say that I don’t know, but it’s something to think about.
The incomparable NAHREP at L’ATTITUDE (NAL) event in Miami. This year, the crowd will be bigger and the speakers will be even more impressive! If you are not familiar with some of the names, let me provide some additional color: Eddy Cue is a Cuban-American and the second-ranking executive at Apple, Orlando Bravo is the wealthiest Latino in America with a net worth of more than 8 billion dollars, and Priscila Almodovar is the only Latina CEO of a Fortune 100 company. Beyond this incredible list of headliners, the hallways at NAL will include…
Attorneys General from thirteen states sent a letter to the 100 largest corporations in America, advising them that they believe the ruling extends to private companies. In their letter, the group of Attorneys General stated their view that “racial discrimination in employment and contracting is all too common among Fortune 100 companies and other large businesses.”
The United States ruled that colleges could no longer consider race as a factor in admissions policies. There would be no need for affirmative action in college admissions if every young person had equal access to safe housing, healthcare, and quality educational resources during their formative years.