I stumbled onto an article in the New York Post on the identify of The Waiter from the blog Waiter Rant (which I’ve mentioned before). Among other things, it says:
And profiling diners based on age, sex and race is still rampant in the industry. “I try not to fall into that trap,” says Dublanica. “I’ve had waiters say to me, ‘this group doesn’t tip well’ – whatever. I don’t believe that. The people who have given me the worst tips of my life have been white Anglo-Saxon males.”
Anybody else think the only difference between “this group doesn’t tip well” and “white Anglo-Saxon males have given me the worst tips of my life” is that the latter names a specific group?
Except he isn’t saying ‘white Anglo-Saxon males give the worst tips’. He’s saying the worst tips he’s received came from [not ‘this group’], debunking the racial stereotype. He identifies the group to which his tippers belong, but he does not make an inductive fallacy and imply all members of that group are equally likely to tip poorly.
Square-Rectangle
Let me say in my defense that when I gave him that tip, he deserved it because of really poor service. Hello? … drinks are served from the right!
But further, the worst tip in his life was probably zero. Undoubtedly that happens fairly regularly and from any identifiable group.
And finally, as he is aware of who gives him the worst tips, I’m sure he is also well aware of who gives him the best. I wonder who it is?