Sitting in their booth at an IHOP this week, four Black Army soldiers received an offer to have their lunch paid for them by a customer appreciative of their service at nearby Fort Belvoir. The White woman ended up giving them just $6 after initially putting down $30 on their table as the men in uniform were wrapping up their meal, an Army spokesman said.
But what began as a small gesture soon turned ugly on Monday when the woman, for reasons that remain unclear, went from offering to pay for their lunch to harassing the troops and accusing them of stealing her money. One of the troops alleged the White woman, who has not been publicly identified, called the group the n-word multiple times at the restaurant in Lorton, Va.
Fort Belvoir is a huge base, with many different military units. No question is raised in the Washington Post article as to what the four soldiers actually do at the base. For what service are they to be thanked? In US media there is no place for this line of inquiry: military personnel are to be thanked, period.
For readers outside the US, „IHOP“ is the abbreviation for International House of Pancakes, a restaurant where bleached white flour (White flour?) pancakes are served soaked with high fructose corn syrup. „The n-word“ is „nigger“, an epithet no longer permitted to be seen in print in the US.
Readers outside the US unfamiliar with „pancakes“ might possibly be interested in learning more about them, and about how international the International House of Pancakes is. Alas,
the International web site is not accessible here in Germany.
This article caught my eye because it is the first time I have seen „White“ capitalized when referring to a person’s race. The woman who harassed the Black soldiers was White, as was the customer who intervened. The IHOP manager is described only as „a manager“, so we are left to wonder whether this was a Black, White, Yellow, Red, or Brown manager.
