April 30, 2005
Written by C.N.
Dennys Discriminates Again
Here’s one from the “Here We Go Again” files: a group of minority customers has brought suit against a Denny’s restaurant for racial discrimination. This time, as reported by CBS News, it was a group of seven Arab Americans who alleged that they were verbally abused and denied service at a Denny’s restaurant near Miami, FL. As the article describes,
The seven men say they went to Fernandez’s restaurant in Florida City, on the southern tip of the Florida peninsula, about 2 a.m. Jan. 11, 2004. They say they were seated, given menus and received their drink orders. But an hour later, their food hadn’t arrived. One of the men — Ehab Albaradi — approached Ascano and inquired about the group’s order, the lawsuit says.
Ascano allegedly said: “Bin Laden is the manager of the kitchen” and “Bin Laden is in charge.” Albaradi and a second man, Usama El-A-Baidy, decided to speak to Ascano again about their order. Angered, Ascano told the short order cooks in the kitchen to cancel the group’s order, the suit claims. El-A-Baidy then asked Ascano why he had used the name bin Laden.
“We don’t serve bin Ladens here! You guys, out!” Ascano allegedly said. A group of officers from the Miami-Dade County and Homestead police departments eating at the Denny’s also told the seven men to leave and threatened to arrest them if they didn’t, the lawsuit said. The officers have not been identified, Kauffman said. . .
The 1,600-restaurant chain, which has annual sales that exceed $2 billion, settled a 1994 lawsuit for $54.4 million that accused the chain of asking blacks to prepay for meals. Since then, it has faced at least six more discrimination lawsuits filed by African-Americans and Hispanics and has been investigated in at least two cases involving discrimination against people of Middle Eastern descent.
Do we see a pattern of discriminatory behavior here? Do we really need any more proof that for whatever reasons, Denny’s restaurants systematically discriminates against people of color? Absolutely unbelievable . . .
Author Citation
Copyright © 2001- by C.N. Le. Some rights reserved. 
Suggested reference: Le, C.N. . "Dennys Discriminates Again" Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America. <https://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/2005/04/dennys-discriminates-again/> ().
Short URL: https://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/?p=77
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