If you think about it, diversity is truly beautiful. The differences among us all culminate to form the extraordinary experience of being human. And every difference should be accepted—whether food preference or a person’s identity—with love because the world becomes so much better with acceptance.
But Reddit user MakesS**tGood faced heat from their girlfriend’s racist parents when they said that everything, including garlic, was spicy at their Mexican restaurant. The original poster (OP) was dumbfounded as they had themselves customized the spice levels as per the girlfriend’s parents' preference.
More info: Reddit
The poster of this story is a non-binary Mexican-American who invited their white girlfriend's parents to their Mexican restaurant
Image credits: freepik (not the actual photo)
They alerted the restaurant accordingly and were aware about which food items didn't have any spice in them, as her parents' spice tolerance was not too high
Image credits: MakesS**tGood
Image credits: Magda Ehlers (not the actual photo)
The parents arrived 30 minutes late and didn't apologize for it, but the poster also realized their transphobia after the father's derogatory statement
Image credits: MakesS**tGood
Image credits: Travis (not the actual photo)
They also found the food spicy despite there being zero spice in it, then they started questioning the poster about their identity, while the father made intolerable comments
Image credits: MakesS**tGood
Image credits: KamranAydinov (not the actual photo)
The mom also refused to eat anything else after stating that she found the garlic in the food spicy while the dad said that he was not going to pay for it
Image credits: MakesS**tGood
Image credits: freepik (not the actual photo)
The father ordered a "gringo burger" at the Mexican restaurant and kept raving about how good it was
Image credits: MakesS**tGood
Image credits: freepik (not the actual photo)
The poster was dumbfounded as even the burger had garlic when initially they thought garlic was spicy
Image credits: MakesS**tGood
Later, the elderly couple called their daughter and begged her to find a "white guy", completely exposing their racism and homophobia
Today’s story throws a light on how a non-binary restaurant owner faced bigotry from their girlfriend’s racist parents. OP told us that they own a Mexican restaurant and invited their girlfriend, Emily’s, parents over there to meet for the first time. As they are white and OP is a Mexican-American, they alerted the restaurant staff about it and made every recipe to match the elderly couple’s spice preferences.
That sounds very thoughtful of OP, doesn’t it? Little did they know about the things that would unfold. First of all, the elderly couple was late by 30 minutes and didn’t even apologize for it. Her dad also made a transphobic comment about the beer and Emily was embarrassed by it. But things just kept escalating after that.
They started shooting questions about OP’s gender identity but the poster didn’t mind explaining it to them. Then her dad brought up how men have been beating women at the Olympics. The poster tried their best to explain the baseless rumors, but the father was of a firm opinion that it was all a “ploy to set back women’s rights”. It all sounds really infuriating, to be honest!
But the worst was yet to come, for things just unraveled after the food came. They found everything to be spicy, even the food items that didn’t have any spice in them. The father declared that he was not going to pay for this, which sounds ridiculous as it was OP’s restaurant and they had invited them.
The mother stated that she was disgusted at being offered such spicy food and claimed that it was the garlic in it that was too spicy for her. And she refused to eat anything else after that. OP was simply dumbfounded by this, as anyone would be.
Later their girlfriend told them that after going home, her parents called her and begged her to find a “white man”. Although she apologized to them, OP must’ve been annoyed by the blatant racism and homophobia and vented on Reddit.
Image credits: Valeria Boltneva (not the actual photo)
Netizens were outraged by the parents’ bigotry and they claimed that they had decided that the food was spicy before they even got to the restaurant. They said that the parents’ prejudice was so strong that no matter how mild the food was, they wouldn’t have cared about it, so there was nothing that OP could've done.
According to Verywell Mind, “When people hold prejudicial attitudes toward others, they tend to view everyone who fits into a certain group as being 'all the same.' They paint every individual who holds particular characteristics or beliefs with a very broad brush and fail to really look at each person as a unique individual.” Seems like that’s just what the couple did.
People online also mocked the couple for finding garlic spicy, and they stated that the couple didn’t understand the difference between spice and flavor. To get some culinary expertise, Bored Panda interviewed Sakshi Kulkarni, who’s a chef at the 5-star restaurant Soho House in Mumbai. Apart from Indian food, she also has experience cooking Mexican and Italian cuisine.
She said, “Every culture has a different type of spice tolerance. It is important to inform the guest beforehand about the spice level according to the dish being served.” In the poster’s situation, though, it seems that they were pretty considerate with the recipes for the couple’s spice levels.
Folks also commented on how the father ordered a “gringo burger” at a Mexican restaurant and even OP was weirded out by this. Sakshi explained that balancing authenticity with local preferences can be tough at times. However, it’s a crucial part of attracting local customers. But, if the food is not appreciated, even if it’s good, just because of prejudice, it can be quite insulting. OP’s annoyance at being insulted is quite understandable.
When we asked Sakshi about how her restaurant deals with unhappy customers, she said, “We first understand what problem they found with a food item and make changes accordingly. But if a customer has decided that they are not going to like the food, there’s not much a chef or even the restaurant owner can do about it.”
Looks like what the Redditors said about how OP couldn’t have done anything is quite true. Because people sick with racism and homophobia often fail to see reason. Wouldn’t you agree? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
The Redditors empathized with the poster and claimed that the couple had decided that the food was spicy even before they came to the restaurant
