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Part of an interview with Essie Lee Jones, June 5, 1996. In this clip, Jones describes racism she encountered while she was working as a waitress.
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Essie Lee Jones oral history interview, 1996 June 05. OH-02107. [Audio recording] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevad
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Was there any competition among the women at either of your jobs? Well, I'd always say that if you lined up a group of waitresses on one side of the room, the blacks on one side and the whites on the other side, the whites would get all the customers and the blacks wouldn't get any. The ones that the blacks would get, to me, were people that actually wanted to be waited on. So you would wait on them and pamper them to death, trying to get a good tip, and you would get the dollar. And the next day that white girl would get them and slop the food to them and they would give her five. I met some good customers and I met some really mean ones. I had people that would come and bring me gifts and ask for me and everything. But then I've had some people that...it's like I had a customer once and he was a big guy. I accidentally rolled (sic) on his shirt by turning around. He laughed it off. His wife went upstairs and wrote a big stink about it and I got a warning slip. I don't think he even knew anything about it. I've always said that if I got fired for some reason like that that I would have to bring those people back. I don't know how I would get them, but I'd have to look them up because I don't think that's fair that the customer is always right. I mean this guy laughed about me taking his shirt home and washing it, and then his wife didn't like it. So tell me then?earlier you said you saw more problems between the races here in Las Vegas than in Tallulah. Give me some examples. I think you just gave me one. But give me other examples that you saw here in Las Vegas. Well, once when I worked in the coffee shop, I was sick one night working graveyard then as a waitress. The hostess to me was prejudice. I had asked to go home because I was sick, and she didn't want me to. That night she fired me because she said that I wasn't sick and I was going to go home. So I fainted or something and I heard she said, "That was just like a nigger." And because she said that and someone else heard it, she couldn't fire me. And that's all that was done about her using that term? Uh-huh, that's all. It was like, yeah, it was mostly?I think now they hide it more than they did then. If they didn't like you, they didn't like you. And I would rather if you don't like me, say you don't like me than to pretend.