Update: The manager at El Potrillo in Flowood, Mississippi has fired the racist cashier who ignored Black patron (Maati Jone Primm), to serve white customers. Ms. Primm is pleased with his actions in resolving this issue.
An Article for your consideration
Maati Jone Primm
Marshall’s Music & Bookstore
601-355-5335
At 2 pm, on October 26, 2013, I visited El Potrillo Restaurant in
Flowood, MS and was the victim of a racist incident. I patiently
stood in line, waiting to place a takeout order for someone else. I
was second in line and when it was my turn, I was standing directly
in front of the cashier who ignored me and took the check of a white
woman who approached the checkout counter even though I was there
before her. After she completed that transaction, the cashier reached
passed me to take the ticket of yet another white customer. When I
protested, she again ignored me as if I was not standing directly in
front of her. The cashier finally finished with that transaction, she
looks at me as if she was seeing me for the first time and asked,
“Are you ready to order?” I replied, “Yes I want to speak with
your manager and I want your name.”
The manager approached me and asked if there was a problem. I
described what had occurred and he took my order. I also explained
that the employee refused to tell me her name stating that she did
not speak English and that I had then asked her in Spanish, “Como
se llama?”
The manager and the cashier engaged in a conversation in Spanish
in which the manager told her that I had been first and should have
been served first (He had passed by and spoke to me when I entered
the restaurant). He further asked the cashier why she did not tell me
her name. She was nonresponsive. I informed the manager of who I am
- an activist and that since neither he nor his cashier would inform
of their names, I would be pursing this further with El Potrillo
Restaurant Incorporated.
Black consumers, historically can look to a time not long ago, a
time of segregation when whites were served first without regard to
first come first serve and without respect. We were served last,
having to go to the back door or just outright refused service. Those
brave american-African souls who sat-in, prayed-in, and marched for
not just our rights as human beings but fought for simple dignities
that should have been ours without the asking. In conclusion, I want
to say to all of my people, do not suffer injustice humbly-fight on.
The struggle continues because as Frederick Douglass told us, “Power
concedes nothing without a demand.”