"White people are comfortable anywhere," says restaurateur Andy Shallal. "In order for a black person to walk into a space, there need to be signals that say, 'You're welcome.'" In this week's show we decode those signals, which include the decor and music, the staff and other customers, and more.
Hey everyone, Dan here with another reheat for you.
This episode was part of a series we did on race, culture and food called who Is this Restaurant For?
It was about these subtle and not so subtle ways that a restaurant may show who its target audience is and by extension, who it isn't.
Katie in Midland, Michigan asked us to reheat this one, saying, I'm in the performing arts industry and I think of this episode often.
Tabitha, another listener, also wrote in to say that this series is actually what turned her into an active Sporkful subscriber.
She writes, it was such an interesting take on race in class that I never considered and helped to identify biases in myself.
So thank you so much to Tabitha and Katie for writing in.
A reminder to all of you that if you have an episode you'd like us to pull out of the deep freezer and reheat, drop me a line, send me an email or voice memo@helloporkful.com Tell me your first name, location, what episode you want us to reheat, and why.
Thanks and enjoy.
This episode contains explicit language.
White people will go and discover the coolest place in the back of a trailer park.
They're comfortable anywhere.
It could be very uncomfortable for a black person to walk into an all white place.
It could even be dangerous.
In order for a black person to walk into a space, there has to be signals that says you're welcome.
Every time you walk into a restaurant, you're bombarded with signals, codes that tell you what kind of place it is and whether it's for you.
Some signals are obvious.
The food, the decor, the prices.
But others are more subtle.
It's the uniform or lack thereof that somebody's wearing.