Cape Town – South African-born singer and songwriter Jonathan Butler says he was racially profiled at American restaurant Goose and Gander after the establishment’s manager followed him to his car to find out if they had paid a tip for the waiter who served him and his friends.
Goose and Gander is a restaurant situated in Napa Valley, California, also known as wine country.
https://www.tiktok.com/@jonathankennethbutler/video/7131999733131808005?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1According to Butler, the manager followed him and his group of friends back to their car, thinking that they hadn’t tipped their server.
“I must say we had a great dinner. The bill came and I paid the bill, and we took care of the bill as well as the server.
“As we were leaving the restaurant, the manager of the restaurant decided to follow me to my car. I turned around and I said what’s the problem, and he asked me this question, ‘did I take care of the server at the restaurant’.
“I have never been followed out of a restaurant in my life. He showed so much lack of respect for me and all of us who ate at the restaurant. I don’t think he would do it to a white person, but he felt comfortable to do it with me to find out if we took care of the server.
“With that being said, it’s offensive, and high disturbing to me that in Napa Valley of all places, there’s jazz restaurants, people from all over the world come here, this guy decided to come to my car to find out if I took care of the server.”
Butler went on to say that they took very well care of their server, and that they tipped the waiter rather generously.
He said that he went back into the restaurant to confront the manager who then tried to talk his way out of it, saying that he didn’t mean to offend him. But Butler said for him to go back into the restaurant to confront the manager meant that he had already been offended and disrespected for who he was as a person.
Butler added that the manager didn’t show him a sense of humanity when he approached him, and said that the treatment at the establishment was reminiscent of back in the day in South Africa.
“I’m deeply offended. This stuff has to stop. We should all be treated with decency and humanity,” Butler said in his TikTok video.
“We’ve got to get rid of this mindset, just because of the colour of my skin and the way I dress that he had the right to follow me out to my car …
“The restuarant came highly recommended and I’m really p*ssed off that he (the manager) would insult my friend who recommended this ‘great restaurant’,” said Butler.
IOL reached out to Goose and Gander for comment, but there was no response.
Butler is a world-renowned singer-songwriter and guitarist born in South Africa.
Butler was the first non-white artist to be played on South African radio and appear on national television.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela credited Butler’s music as having inspired him during his imprisonment.
IOL
