In the latest issue of “everything I don’t like is a legacy of slavery,” racial agitator Nikole Hannah-Jones linked the practice of tipping waiters and waitresses at restaurants to … slavery. This claim, much like the entire 1619 Project, is not true.
“Tipping is a legacy of slavery and if it’s not optional then it shouldn’t be a tip but simply included in the bill. Have you ever stopped to think why we tip, like why tipping is a practice in the US and almost nowhere else?” Hannah-Jones said in a since-deleted tweet.
Except it is a practice in other parts of the world. Maybe Hannah-Jones has never traveled abroad, and this is an example of her ignorance. But anyone who has been to a cafe in Paris, a pub in London, a restaurant in Moscow, or a cafe in Rome knows that tipping is customary.
Additionally, if Hannah-Jones did not know that, she could have spent the 83 seconds it took me to do a Google search on the origins of tipping. There is uncertainty over when tipping began, but it certainly began long before slavery in America.
For example, one historical account traces the origins of tipping to the
Roman Empire
. Another historical account cites tipping as a more “recent” phenomenon — as recent as the
Middle Ages
, that is. Others identify tipping as originating in either 16th-century or 17th-century England.
According to The Art of Tipping: Customs & Controversies, written in 1984, the authors suggest that tipping in commercial industries started in England in the 16th century in various coffee shops around the country “where local gentry gathered to exchange ideas.” Customers “dropped a coin” in a box at these establishments if they wanted “to insure promptitude” (notice the acronym here).
Tipping long predates the existence of the United States and slavery. The fact that Hannah-Jones can make such a ridiculous and bogus claim and be taken seriously is an indictment of how fanatical people on the Left really are.
I just feel sorry for whoever waits on her the next time she dines out.
