The other day I was scrolling through Facebook and this cartoon popped up in my feed. It’s a white woman sitting at a restaurant table exclaiming how she’s “so over this quarantine thing” while a Black server in mask and gloves pours her wine and reminds her he makes $2.13 an hour. The divide between those who are demanding to be waited on and the people who make their living doing so has never been larger. During a pandemic, it feels like servitude.
Remember a few months ago when everyone was all about praising essential workers? Health care providers, of course, but also hourly workers like grocery store stockers, Target checkout clerks and the people who had the misfortune of being in charge of the toilet paper line at Costco. Now that people are over the whole quarantine thing and are clamoring to go out to eat again, why aren’t restaurant employees given the same respect as those other essential employees?
Right to Work Safely
Without the line cook, your burger wouldn’t get made. Without a server, it would never get to your table. Without a bartender, your complicated cocktail would be a PBR tallboy. Yet customers are back to treating essential service industry employees poorly because their right to not wear a mask somehow supersedes employees' rights to work in a safe environment.
There have been numerous incidents where restaurant employees have been attacked verbally and physically by customers over mask policies all around the country. Some customers become aggressive or combative when asked to wear a mask, and have yelled obscenities, called employees names, assaulted and even shot at restaurant employees. Because of the outlandish backlash, some restaurants have chosen to close in order to keep employees safe from customers. (How insane is that sentence?)
“But how can you eat with a mask on?!” is the chorus being sung over and over again from anti-maskers. Well, you can’t, obviously. No one is expecting you to defy the laws of physics to comply with a mask mandate. But a good portion of the time you are inside a restaurant, if not the majority of it, you are not actively eating or drinking. From the time you step into the door to the time food or drink is delivered to your table, you can wear a mask. Getting up to use the restroom? Slip your mask back on. Done eating? Put the mask back on until you leave.
It’s not difficult to understand how to be considerate with mask wearing in a restaurant, but anti-maskers continually feign ignorance anyway. Covering your face when you’re speaking to your server is the bare minimum you can do to show them the respect they deserve while you're enjoying being waited on once again.
Mask Mandate Updates
Earlier this week, Dane County became the first municipality in the state to approve a mask mandate, which goes into effect on Monday July 13. It requires that everyone over 5 years old wear a mask of some sort in any enclosed building where people outside your household may be present. That includes restaurants, which are rolling back in-person dining to 25% capacity.
Milwaukee is on its way to passing a similar mandate, and more details have emerged as to what a mandate may look like here. The ordinance proposed by Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic would require masks to be worn at indoor public places, including restaurants. It would require businesses to enforce the mandate and include fines or the possibility of being shut down by the health department for non-compliance.
Individuals who continually violate the mandate could also be fined as well. According to Mayor Barrett and Health Commissioner Kowalik, the details of the mandate are still in the works and may change.
Unfortunately, the mandate in its current form still leaves dealing with non-compliant customers to restaurant employees lest the business get fined, but there's very little way around that. Service industry workers will always take the brunt of irate and abusive behavior, and the only way to avoid unnecessary confrontation is to just wear a mask. In exchange for the privilege of being waited on, you have a responsibility to treat service industry workers with the respect they deserve.
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