Frederick Douglass Was Not a Waiter, But…
A few months ago, an entirely new and different world was opened up to me. I learned from one of our neighbors that I could “borrow” audiobooks from our local library and listen to them for free. Since then, I’ve “read” about twenty-five books. I have found this practice to be much more informative and interesting than what I did previously while I was driving, doing odd jobs around the house, etc. The time spent on listening to political commentators with whom I already basically agreed or music I’ve known for a half century or so now occupies very, very little of my time.
I am particularly drawn to books about historical events and/or people. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is one of the most recent of these books I’ve “read.” The book is basically an autobiography of this famous man who, to quote one source, went from being a slave to being “…an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman.” Actually, this book is the first of three of his autobiographies. The voice I heard reading the book was obviously not his. The words I heard, however, were the words of this accomplished man.
This book has, at least for me, a number of themes and take-aways. Much has been said and written about some of those major themes. I do not intend to add anything to those discussions. Instead, I would like to make an observation about one that may go unnoticed to a lot of people. It did not go unnoticed by me, though. In fact, it “stuck out like a sore thumb” to me.
During one portion of the book, Mr. Douglass was describing one of his owners as being one of the most religious men in the community as well as being one of the (if not the) cruelest master(s) he ever had when he was a slave. During that same section of the book, he expressed his opinion or shared his observation that this was not an uncommon combination. It appeared to him that slave owners who appeared in some ways to be very devoted to God and were even religious leaders were, at the same time, extremely cruel to their slaves.
You may be wondering what all of this has to do with being a waiter or a waitress. Sadly, there seems to be a connection.
I’ve talked with people who have worked as servers in restaurants and/or who know people who have done that. As much as I hate to relate this information, I have heard variations of the same thing way too often. In my opinion, once would be too often, but I’ve heard it many times more than that.
What I have heard is that the rudest customers they have are those who go to a restaurant to eat after a worship service on Sunday morning. In fact, I once heard somebody express the opinion that it is easier to deal with the drunks on Saturday night than it is to deal with the people who go out to eat after a Sunday morning worship assembly. That same observation has been made about people who go to restaurants while they are attending things like religious workshops, lectureships, seminars, etc.
How sad is that? There were people who treated others like they were something less than human in very violent ways when Mr. Douglass lived. Could it be true that the same thing is happening today in a somewhat more subtle way?
Christians are supposed to be salt and light. I’m fairly certain that this cannot be accomplished by treating others like the scum of the earth.
AUTHOR: Jim Faughn
