Yup, Now Even Tipping Is Racist

Nikole Hannah-Jones, a New York Times reporter and creator of the 1619 Project, riled up social media on Monday when she tweeted that “tipping is a legacy of slavery.”

“Tipping is a legacy of slavery and if it’s not optional then it shouldn’t be a tip but simply included in the bill,” Hannah-Jones wrote. “Have you ever stopped to think why we tip, like why tipping is a practice in the U.S. and almost nowhere else?”

Hannah-Jones, 45, created the 1619 Project which intends to “reframe” American history by “placing the consequences of slavery at the center of the national narrative,” she wrote in the Times.

Her tweet drew mockery from historian Phil Magness, a longtime gadfly to Hannah-Jones.

“Wait, what?” Magness, author of a rival project called “The 1619 Project: A Critique,” wrote on Twitter.

Wait, what? pic.twitter.com/ylpH1UigLe

— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) March 22, 2022

Magness noted that tipping is not isolated to just the U.S., posting a Good Housekeeping guide for how to tip in other countries. Magness also cited a scene from William Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night” that references tipping.

And yes, there’s even a scene in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night that depicts tipping.

Note: “gratillity” is an obsolete old English word for gratuity. pic.twitter.com/iix1vNPxm8

— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) March 22, 2022

That drew a response from Hannah-Jones. “I know your obsession with my Twitter account is unrelenting because it’s the only time anyone pays attention to your tweets, but come on,” she tweeted.

“You can’t discredit me, you’re not converting anyone or revealing anything by going behind my block to stalk my Twitter for tweets you can post to invite scorn,” Hannah-Jones added. “This is about you hoping to bring attention you otherwise don’t get and fill some bitter hole you have. Sad. So sad.”

Hannah-Jones also said she tips, despite her view that it’s racist.

Hannah-Jones was quick to add that she doesn’t stiff the help despite her dubious claims about the practice’s origin.

“Are y’all reading what I am writing or nah?” she wrote after others on social media piled on. “I said I tip. I tip well. I tip almost always. But I object to the idea that I am obligated to tip no matter how I am treated. Nope. And you can’t get more offended at me than employers that pay less-than-minimum wage.”

And Hannah-Jones said she sometimes is “disrespected at restaurants.” “I’ve said what I have to say about this,” she wrote. “I have been utterly disrespected at restaurants. Ignored. Rudeness. Nope.”

Hannah-Jones penned a New York Times magazine article titled “The 1619 Project.”

“Published in August 2019, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the English colony of Virginia, the work has been criticized by some academics for its claims – and angered many others who saw it as unpatriotic,” the Daily Mail wrote.

Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

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