[url]http://www.kerbeylanecafe.com/an-apology-from-our-ceo/[/url]

[quote]On Sunday, December 6, two young female guests of Kerbey Lane Cafe on Guadalupe were insulted by another guest who told them that they should “go back to Saudi Arabia” among other rude and inappropriate comments. In an attempt to defuse the situation, the store leader seated the man who’d made the comments in another part of the restaurant.

One of the women who had been insulted announced to the dining room that she and her friend had been the targets of racist comments, and that nothing had been done in response because, “who cares about us?” In response, one diner shouted, “Nobody.” (Read this Austin Chronicle article for a full account of the incident).

The following is a statement by Kerbey Lane Cafe’s Chief Executive Officer, Mason Ayer:

I was deeply saddened when I learned of the upsetting events that occurred at our Guadalupe location on Sunday morning. There should be no place for racist, ignorant behavior in our society, and it’s incredibly upsetting that an incident like this occurred at all. When I learned of what happened, I called Ms. Abdennabi and expressed to her how very sorry I was that she and Ms. Al-Nahi were subjected to this abuse by another patron at Kerbey Lane Cafe. No human being deserves to be treated the way Ms. Abdennabi and Ms. Al-Nahi were treated by this person, who demonstrated that he has a small, bigoted view of the world.

I also regret how the situation was handled. It could and should have been handled better on our part. I’ve discussed the incident with the store leader who was on duty this morning, and she is also very upset and realizes that she should have handled the situation differently by asking the hateful guest to leave – or contacting the police if she felt it necessary – rather than attempting to defuse the situation by separating the parties in different sections of the restaurant.

I’m sorry the situation was not handled this way and that Ms. Abdennabi and Ms. Al-Nahi suffered as a result.

Ultimately, responsibility for what occurred rests with me. It is not the fault of our store leader that she doesn’t know how to handle a heated, hate-filled assault by one of our guests directed at another. It’s my fault. It’s my fault because she hasn’t been trained for this situation. All of our team members understand that racism and intolerance are unacceptable in any context, but as the leader of our organization it’s my responsibility to ensure that in a situation such as this one our store leaders know how to handle the situation in a way that best ensures the safety of our guests and team members while also ensuring an unwelcome patron is removed from the restaurant. All store leaders and team members, across all locations, will receive this training moving forward. While I hope another incident like this never occurs at one of our restaurants, it’s imperative that our store leaders know how to properly handle it.

In the end, while we welcome everyone at Kerbey Lane Cafe, there is no place for hatred and I’m so very sorry about what happened.[/quote]

from a really good executive.

a high priced PR damage control consultant. We have no idea if the CEO really feels that way.

that wasn't legal speak in any sense of the word.

It was heart felt and sincere. If it was for legal purposes it wouldn't have been so long.

I think it was a classy response to a shitty situation. Of course his staff weren't trained for this. We don't expect human beings to act like barbarians in restaurants. Sadly, that's changing now.

They are paid big bucks to make it sound that way. People are so gullible.

Last edited Mon Dec 7, 2015, 02:45 PM - Edit history (1)

I do wonder if the knuckle-draggers will try to boycott this place now...



Edited to add local newspaper story of this event.

Some of the comments are great, some are predictable, (see TJ Williams)

http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2015-12-06/breakfast-with-bigots/

all the more room for reasonable people to enjoy what the place has to offer.

I try to go there every time I visit my sister - right along with Torchy's.

My sister and her husband probably own a corner of the place by now, considering how often they eat there. Knowing her like I do, she would have said something if she had heard it.

More should feel and act in that way.

worth preserving.

Good Job, Mason Ayer.

From my reading of the account by the owner, it sounds like two people was all it took to create this incident. I don't know how many others were there at the time, but their collective silence allowed the two troublemakers to speak for all of them.

Because the women targeted by these two could understandably draw a far different conclusion based on their personal experience and observation: "Who cares about us?" The only answer was "Nobody." What would you conclude?

...real assholes here (DFW area). MOST of them are cowards who secretly harbor the same sentiments as the asshole in that Austin diner. They're too f'in cowardly to make a scene to a Muslim/Black/Latino person's face. And they will damn sure keep their mouths shut when witnessing such assholery. Those that will jump to defend the victim are few and far between. And when someone does start harassing a Muslim and no one challenges their idiocy, it makes them bolder.

I hope you're fortunate to live in a friendlier, less neanderthal-populated area of Texas. My experience has caused me to hate this pathetic state and if I wasn't stuck here I'd be gone in a heartbeat.

There's a word we use outside of Texas - I don't know if they know it in Texas - for when a person has the opportunity to stick up for the oppressed but doesn't, and later wants everyone to know that they coulda/woulda/shoulda said something, but they didn't, because . . . well, you know: Reasons.

So two troublemakers get to speak for all Texans even though "not all Texans" feel that way. Speak up or own the result. You don't get to have it both ways.

I can't be more clear than that. Sorry

In a room full of (presumably) Texans, the victims asked if anyone cared about the prejudice they were facing. The answer, unchallenged and uncontroverted, was "nobody."

The situation can't be more clear than that. As I said, you don't get to remain silent when you should have spoken up, then later get to say, "Oh we're not all like that." Because there's no proof. Sorry, not sorry.

A roomful of Texans sat quietly while two women were subjected to a bigot's ranting. When they appealed to the room for a contrary opinion, they were told that nobody disagreed with the bigot. That's not stereotyping, that's a recitation of the facts of the situation.

If it makes you uncomfortable to be cast with the bigots, then say something. You're living, but not learning. You want credit for the people in the room not being bigots, but none of them uttered a peep against the bigotry on display. The obvious conclusion is that they agreed with the bigot, because in this case, silence equals consent.

Because the conclusion is warranted based on the actual events, not on what someone wishes had happened or thinks should have happened. When the entire room had the chance, the only person who spoke up agreed with the bigot.

If Pastor Niemoller was correct, the day will not be long delayed when someone in that room who kept silent will wish someone was around to speak up for them.

until the young Muslim women addressed the people eating?

Texas has over 25 million people. I guess most things are bigger in Texas....especially restaurants.

I don't think it's fair to judge all, or most, Texans by the actions (or lack of actions) by a handful of people in a restaurant. That would be sort of like labeling all the members of one religion as terrorists, based on the actions of a relative few that professed to be of the same religion.

THIS Texan would have spoken up for these 2 women

So it's perhaps not surprising that in a room full of people, not one of them spoke up. But I'll go back to my original point: Everyone in that room, by their silence, signaled agreement with the two troublemakers who did express themselves.

It's a longtime local place in the little blue island that is Austin, one of the first localvore restaurants, extensive vegetarian & vegan choices. That location is by the university. I'd expect any KL to be filled with old hippies and their descendants. Bravo to the executive.

....the same sentiments.

I mean look who they elected as gov.

This is not surprising at all.

Its shameful these women have to face such hate, hopefully the cafe makes things right and give them a year of free coffee. I don't think a Facebook apology is good enough here.

and the place is usually packed with foreign students and, honestly, very few Anglo-Americans.

It's a fascinating - and delicious - place to eat.

so guess it's not surprising this happened. And I hear some Irish moved there too...and let's not forget the Somali.

Which makes as much sense as what you just wrote.

If it's really necessary.

first hand experience. All you did was READ about it. Sorry, but that really pissed me off.

I was responding to the person who seemed to feel that having a large German population meant that is made sense that these women were harassed.

I can't believe I read that here.

I was in Texas during and after 9/11 and never heard of this kind of crap taking place. Supposedly Texans pride themselves on politeness, but clearly that trait seems to be going away. Kudos for the store owner.

if you witness it, intervene.

And I will leave it at that. But it is happening not just in Texas.

On 9/11/01 I was just graduated from my master's degree program and went to watch the teevee at friend's in the campus neighborhood. I am not exactly pearly white but everyone usually has a hard time trying to figure out my ethnic background but on that day and for weeks afterward, and though I had lived in that neighborhood for over a decade, I was accosted by several assholes who told me to "...go back to wherever the hell I came from!" by bigots all over campus.

Funny thing is that now the whole campus community has a 45% ME ethnic makeup. Can't go there without encountering at least 5 out of 10 people being from India, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other countries in the region. LOL. And we're talking Idaho here... I wonder how the next decade will turn out in that town.

and I will leave it at that. It was on Sunday

for whom this is a P4 call... and they might get to it in 20 hours or so.

I'm not at all an intimidating-looking person, so I doubt it would escalate into violence. So no reason not to speak up...

I've stood up to my fellow Texans all my life when they start getting stupid in the brain. And if they want to shoot me, guess what sucker I am armed too. This is Texas after all where we settle everything with guuunns! And despite rumors from the Hate Machine, liberals are just as armed as the nut bars.

And after looking at some of your grouping shots...I feel good about my odds cuz you GOPers can't hit the broadside of barn!

or this case.

People are on edge and looking for a fight. And when you combine stupid with firearms...you never get good results.

I like the cell phone idea.

why not?

this is not just Texas

I doubt teabillies and neckbeards have the mental depth of discipline to learn how to make IEDs, regardless of how simple they are to make.

I lived in a rural town full of Teabaggers, including one of my brothers. I can assure you, my brother knows how to blow shit up from a remote location just like I do and most of his fellow Teabaggers. They don't because they're not psychotic, just ignorant.

Not as blatantly hateful, but similar in tone.

We had just come down from the mountains and were still in jeans and outdoor clothes. We got to Bern in the middle of a huge anti-nuclear power demonstration that we didn't know was happening, and made our way through the police lines and water cannon to our hotel. It was 1986, and the dollar was way high against the franc, so I had booked a room at one of the most upscale hotels in Bern. I had been doing that for a couple of years and speak Swiss German, so the reception staff knew me. Our two girls were 1½ and 3½.

Due to the demonstration, the hotel's terrace café was almost deserted. We took a seat at a table, and when one of the young waiters came over to take our order, we ordered ice cream for the girls and coffee for ourselves. When nothing came after ten minutes, we thought it odd, and our girls were getting impatient. After half an hour, the head waitress was standing between her two younger waiters, all three of the with their arms folded, and our girls were crying. My wife figured it out before I did. The head waitress had mistaken us for demonstrators, and ordered that we not be served. My wife blew a gasket and told the rest of us to accompany her to the reception desk. She was practically shouting at them (happens once MAYBE every ten years), telling them what a crappy institution they ran, said that if the stupid head waitress had bothered to come to our table herself, she would have noticed our room key on the table, and most important, even if we HAD been demonstrators, if we had conducted ourselves peacefully, and agreed to pay their prices, she had no business not serving us in any case.

An Italian guy I knew who worked at the reception told me this surely couldn't have been the case in THEIR hotel, and certainly not with a regular guest. He asked if we would wait in our room until he got to the bottom of this. So we did. He called up a few minutes later, apologizing profusely, and told us we could order whatever we wanted, and it would be brought up to our room at no charge. To add impact to the lesson they intended to teach, they made the head waitress at the café deliver it to us personally. When we checked out the next day, the manager came down to apologize again, and wrote us a long letter after we got back to Germany. He told me later the incident had been documented and permanently incorporated into their training of staff. My wife refuses to this day to ever stay there again. LOTS of hard feelings.

If the two Palestinian women harbor similar feelings for the place in Austin, I understand only too well.

in this story.

America is in for a very tough ride when the leaders of the GOP promote hate

I'm guessing incidents like this will spike over the coming months (regardless of state) as the under-educated and sub-literate continue reacting to collective narratives rather than to individual people.

I am glad however, that a silver lining emerged in that the CEO took a firm stance against bigotry.

but these terms are not helpful at all. Was it racism? Islamophobia? Islam, an incredibly bigoted, homophobic, misogybistic, hateful religion, explicitly in the Koran and hadiths, doesn't really make sense in the term Islamophobia, at all.

Or, it makes as much sense as saying fascist phobia, liberal phobia, Christianity phobia, etc.

I just laugh when people bring that term up, it makes it hard to take them seriously. You just experienced bigotry, and are now referencing the bigotry back to a bigoted belief system you identify with?

Being scared of Islam is as sane as being scared of conservatism, they even overlap quite a lot. Maybe you could say it's Muslimphobia? I think straight up bigotry is the best description, with a mix of xenophobia and racism in many situations. But to give this bigoted belief system some sort of status similar to that of "homophobia" is just ludicrous and counter productive. Hell, Islam perpetuates quite a few "phobia" all over the world.

Most Muslim Americans do not act on or just ignore the terrible parts of Islam, same as Christians and Christianity. I don't think they should get a pat on the back for identifying with hateful belief systems and not acting on them, but I'll grant that people who assume they're violent are bigoted, and that's about all you can say when you identify with a bigoted belief system yourself.

It really makes it hard to sympathize much with someone who experiences bigotry while choosing to identify with an explicitly bigoted belief system. And then to ape the use of a term of a seriously oppressed minority like homosexuals, oppressed by your own bigoted religion nonetheless, just makes me laugh at the absurdity of it all. Wow.

"It really makes it hard to sympathize much with someone who experiences bigotry..."

No. Not really. These two young women did nothing at all to anyone at all and received bigoted responses for it.

Seems to me, only someone rationalizing their own biases and justifying their own interpretations of a religion would find it difficult to sympathize with them.

But then, as I'm using the actual actors in the piece rather than a straw-man hypothetical scenario, that may allow me more reason to sympathize than otherwise.

Which makes it hard for me to sympathize much at all. I didn't bring up a hypothetical straw man scenario. In fact, I have no idea what you're referring to, as you don't seem to address anything at all in my post, which was objecting to the term Islamophobia.

They were on the receiving end of bigotry, and say that the bigotry is influenced by a irrational fear of Islam? The religion that oppresses homosexuals around the word and can truly be called homophobic? Islamophobic is a terrible term that seems to make the mistake of substituting the abuser for the abused.

Islam is straight up bigoted, as are all the Abrahamic religions, and the only people that have to rationalize and justify the terrible bigotry, misogyny, homophobia and hate in those texts and dogmas are the people that choose to identify with them. And they do, they rationalize all of it, and I don't respect that one bit.

Which is why the irony is too much for me to handle.

I'd remind them of the word from George Bush Jr. right after 9/11. Did he call Islam horrible and curse about Muslims? Hell no he did not...to his credit he said this;

'I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It's practiced freely by many millions of Americans, and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful , and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them.'

Too many adult-children getting giddy about listening to Muslims getting humiliated in public...well guess what assholes, you will be next or your turn is coming up. Think you are special and above reproach? Dream on, dream on.

bigots on parade.....

I don't think it's racist to dislike Muslims. I don't like anyone that is overtly religious. As a proud atheist, I am highly offended by religious people that wear their opinions on their sleeve. I especially don't like the way Muslim's treat woman, homosexuals and transgender people.

I don't agree with some of what you typed.

belittling people who are simply trying to eat a meal is entirely another

Austin is a pretty progressive city.

And Kirby Lane Cafe? Yummmmmm.

Muslim men don't have to do anything regarding their own character, except demand that women cover up their slutty hair. Cover up your slutty hair, or deserve to be raped!

Muslim men are not as easy to spot, since they get to dress as wetern as they want to.