T-Boz believes it might be necessary for Ruth’s Chris to provide its staff with a refresher on customer service following a rough dining experience.
The TLC vocalist shared her concerns about being treated disrespectfully during her visit to one of the restaurant’s branches in North Brook Township, North Carolina. She recounted her experience in a series of videos uploaded to Instagram on Saturday (Aug. 31). The Atlanta-born artist started off by noting that she had been on the road all day and was still dressed casually in a T-shirt and a black hat. T-Boz went on to mention that her group faced an initial problem when they weren’t welcomed upon arrival, and after sitting down and placing their orders, they had to wait 20 minutes before a manager came over to address them.
Obnoxious Exclusive Why Are All the Black People Sitting In Massa’s Section?’: T-Boz Calls Out Ruth’s Chris Restaurant After She and Her Crew Were ‘Racially Profiled’ and Told to Change Seats Over Wardrobe Incident
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Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins took to social media to call out a… pic.twitter.com/V6xBw1Vbdl
T-Boz stated that she was told to remove her hat. She stood her ground and declined to take it off, but was informed that she and her friends would need to relocate to the bar area, which she agreed to do. However, before they left their table, the four-time Grammy Award winner observed two Black men, also dressed casually and wearing hats, sitting behind her and permitted to continue their meals. When she inquired about why those guests were allowed to stay, she was told that the men had also been asked to move in accordance with the restaurant’s policies.
“My thing is, I don’t have a problem with rules, following it, whatever, but it’s how you do things, too,” explained the “No Scrubs” songstress. Her encounter with the employee further derailed when T-Boz pointed out that multiple staff members saw her hat but did not request she remove it before entering the dining area. “If somebody would have said that, we would have went and did it in the first place,” she said.
Additionally, the ATL actress pointed out that, unlike the two men sitting nearby, she and her group were not afforded the same courtesy of remaining at their table to enjoy their meal. Instead, they were directed to the bar area, where there were no available seats.
“Everybody’s crew looks like [they’re] seated in massa’s section,” she added in a third video, where she rhetorically asked, “Why [are] all the Black people sitting in this section?” As her recollection of the disastrous outing concluded, she stated, “My whole thing is everybody said they felt some weird vibes at this Ruth’s Chris, so it seems like all the employees need a little taking to even the ones running it ‘cause they ain’t running it right, honey.”
Despite everything, T-Boz mentioned that she and her group decided to leave without having a meal, expressing that many of them felt they had been “racially profiled.”