Yelp adds New Consumer Alert

[George]

Yelp adds alerts for businesses accused of racism

Businesses accused of "overtly racist actions" from customers may soon see a warning on their Yelp page.

www.cnn.com

 

[tango]

Sounds like it's ripe for abuse. If a restaurant that requires a jacket and tie turns away a black man for not wearing a jacket and tie, I wonder whether anything will prevent that man from claiming he was turned away based on his race rather than his failure to comply with the dress code.

 

[Lamb]

I read that evidence will be needed to verify but still this type of thing makes me very uncomfortable.

 

[tango]

I read that evidence will be needed to verify but still this type of thing makes me very uncomfortable.

I guess it will be just another field to ignore.

If evidence is required it will be useless - the chances are no restaurant is going to have a "no blacks" sign in the window that can be conveniently photographed to prove how racist they are. Even if a black customer were denied a table and told "no n-----s allowed here" by the greeter the chances are they wouldn't be able to prove it. And if a restaurant were overtly glorifying the KKK or the Nazi regime or similar the chances are any customers they were seeking to keep away wouldn't need a Yelp review to figure they weren't welcome there.

In the absence of concrete evidence it ends up as little more than something being racist because somebody believes it is racist. So the genuine mistake in the kitchen that happened to affect a black customer may or may not be racist, depending on whether the customer feels like making a stink out of it. I'll also wager that if roles were reversed, and a white customer suffered an identical kitchen mistake in a black owned restaurant, that wouldn't be considered racist even if whitey were told "we don't want your sort here".

 

[tango]

This seems a far more useful way of doing it...

Yelp Hires Workers With Megaphones To Follow People Around And Call Them Racists

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—In its ongoing campaign to protect the American people from the evil scourge of deadly racism, Yelp has added some new features that will help consumers discern which businesses are owned by democrats, and which ones are owned by racists. If business owners are accused of...

babylonbee.com