Don't Eat At Racist El Potrillo Restaurants in Mississippi

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.”