Yelp's New Racism Policies May Potentially Hurt Innocent Businesses
/In a world where Black Lives Matter activists march to restaurants and harass patrons until they throw up their fists and chant their mantra like a cult, you’d think businesses would discourage witch hunts. Unfortunately, that’s not the world we live in.
Yelp, a major review site, is enacting policies to give users the ability to label businesses as racist.
Critics and concerned businesses are noting how easily Yelp’s good intentions may be corrupted. Slandering competitors with accusations of racism is an easy way to drive customers away. Then there’s the reality that angry customers may falsely accuse a business of racism. If you’ve had any real-life experience with customers in a service industry, you’d know that some misunderstand situations or overexaggerate. I’ve seen black customers accuse black workers of racism because they couldn’t get a discount.
In a viral video earlier this year, a woman accused an Asian tea shop of “cultural appropriation” because it was selling boba tea, and their business is called “Trap Tea.” The black Muslim woman claimed she came to the tea shop to support a black business. After she purchased her products, she began to berate the staff. Other patrons, including a black man, chastised the woman. She then called him a coon. Imagine if Yelp gave this power to a customer like that.
What happens when a customer walks into a business in rural America and is unhappy with the lack of diversity of the staff or even the patrons?
I’d imagine Yelp is opening themselves up to potential lawsuits. If a business loses financial support from customers over being mislabeled as racist, they’d be wise to go after Yelp for damages.
Worst of all, this policy can easily be weaponized by radical groups like Antifa. They’re already compiling a list of “non-friendly businesses” that offer support of police officers.
Yelp claims that its mission is to connect people with great businesses, and now it’s actively jeopardizing those businesses.
The reason why so many people take offense to my slavery analogies is that hindsight grants them moral superiority on the issue of slavery, and they’re offended that I would dare to sully their support of child sacrifice in such a way. The reality is that many of these uppity abortion advocates would have likely supported slavery back in the day. They would have been products of the culture, just like they’re the products of today.