*Every time someone mentions to me how sick they are of L.A. because of its high cost of living; and adds they are moving to Atlanta because they can get more bang for their buck I tell them, “Go right ahead. It’s still Georgia!” Since I grew in the segregated south, I must admit: I’m traumatized. I don’t trust living there ever again.
I don’t get to visit often, even though that’s not the reason. I have family there that I would love to see more often. But honestly, it just dawned on me today after speaking with my brother about a possible visit next Fall, I would even be skeptical eating in a southern restaurant not staffed with Black folk in the kitchen.
Now, I find this report. A man at a restaurant in the Buckhead area of Atlanta hands his African American waitress a menu with additional content drawn on it.
A swastika.
Pretty bold, huh? I hope you’ll join me in hoping she spit in his food!
According to what waitress Shelley Sidney shared with Georgia news station WSB-TV, the incident occurred last Thursday while she was waiting on a private party at Antica Posta in the Buckhead area of Atlanta.
She recounted it as the most ?blatantly hateful thing? that she has experienced.
?I get to the last person in the party, and they give me a menu that has a swastika drawn on it,? Sidney said.
Making bad matters even worse, Sidney thought she was doing the responsible thing when she immediately shared the incident with her boss, owner Marco Betti.
But obviously not.
Betti’s dismissal of the hateful incident — which he excused citing freedom of speech, left her feeling ?hurt and frustrated.?
The photo below shows the menu with the swastika sketched on the right..
According to a News One report, Sidney mentioned she also overheard one of the guests use the n-word after she went back downstairs to the restaurant.
?I was really in tears when I was overhearing the conversations, the private conversations of just how horrible Black people are, immigrants are, gay people are,? she shared with WSB-TV. ?He [the owner] never told them that they had to leave. I think that it?s unacceptable for this to be able to go on. It?s 2017.?
Check out the video report below to hear what the restaurant’s attorney says about the waitress and her job.
