A Tennessee waiter was left shocked after receiving a controversial note at the top of a receipt while working at the On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina in Memphis. Nathan Bergeron said it was one thing to be stiffed out of a tip on the $47 bill, but the note sparked a whole different reaction.
“We don’t tip white ppl! LOL,” the message, written in black ink at the top of the receipt, read.
“I was more shocked,” Bergeron told WATN. “The fact that they would be so blatant and put it out there.
“I treated that table no differently from anyone else,” he added. “Obviously, in this business, we don’t always get a tip. You just move on about it and go onto your next table.”
Bergeron told the news station that the customers in question appeared to be a family of three—a husband, a wife and a teenager—and the table was the last table of his night.
He ended up taking a picture of the receipt with the note and sending it to some friends via text. From there, one of his friends asked if she could post it to Facebook to raise awareness about racism.
“He’s a good person. He goes to work, does his job,” the friend in question, Brandy Sciara, told the news station. “When I saw the comment, I cried. I was always told, ‘If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all.’”
The message Sciara posted has since gone viral.
“Community support has been wonderful,” she added. “Everyone is standing behind Nathan.”
As for Bergeron, he said that he wouldn’t let the situation get the best of him, adding: “I love what I do. I get to meet new people every day and interact with people from all different backgrounds.”
On the Border declined to comment on the situation, citing the need to speak to Bergeron first before issuing a statement.
Read more at WATN.