MY PEN IS MIGHTY

The Trouble With Tipping

Burdened with a long, racist past for workers and customers, the gratuity system deserves to be forever shelved

Audarshia Townsend
ZORA
Published in
5 min readSep 9, 2021

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Many hospitality workers are at the mercy of their customers. Photo: Getty Images

There is one reason — and one reason only — why I never took a job in the service industry where tipping was involved: My mother told me not to.

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Audarshia Townsend
ZORA
Writer for

Audarshia Townsend is a Chicago-based journalist who writes about how food & beverages impact the culture and industry. Email: Audarshia@townsendmediamagic.com