A recent racist incident at a Sioux Falls Denny’s restaurant shows how deeply rooted hate and ignorance are in our state
Like millions of Americans, Damon Whitfield and Hector Madeira just wanted a meal before they hit the road.
But their horrible experience at the Denny’s in Sioux Falls resulted in yet another racist incident in South Dakota, which is justifiably drawing attention to our state. All because two Black men tried to order a meal. It was Sunday, Aug. 13, and Whitfield and Madeira, who are long-haul truck drivers, stopped at the Denny’s restaurant at 5201 Granite Lane. It’s part of the Flying J Travel Center, where truckers can fuel up, take a shower and grab a bite to eat.Whitfield was seated at table 52 at the Denny’s and given menus and a glass of orange juice, according to his account of the incident. Madeira finished his shower and walked in to join him when they noticed they could not place their order.
A waitress was serving other people, including some who came in after them. When they asked why they couldn’t order, she seized the OJ and menus, said they had insulted her and demanded they leave.
Whitfield and Madeira, who said all he said was “Excuse me,” were puzzled. They had not raised their voices or made any demands. They just wanted some food.
That’s when they began recording. The video, which went viral over the weekend, shows a different Denny’s employee, a young blond woman, asking them to leave. When they asked why, she offered no reason.
“I don’t know,” she said, but told them if they did not depart, the cops would be called.
They asked for the name of the waitress who refused to serve them, and were told they could not have it. Could they see a manager? No, there was none on duty.
Then the police officers showed up and asked the men to leave. The truckers were still stunned at what was happening.
“I’ve never been involved in nothing like this before. Like I said, we just came to get something to eat, and they’re telling us we can’t be served. I’ve seen stuff like this on YouTube,” one of the truckers tells the cops. “But I never thought that it would happen to me. I just couldn’t believe it. It’s crazy.”
The police officers said they were sorry this was happening, but the business had a right to order them out.
“It happened to me last week,” one of the cops, who is not Black, said.
One of the truckers then said he was not trying to “cause a racial thing,” but it was hard to draw any other conclusion.
“Everybody in here is white, and we’re, like, the only Black people and you’re gonna just kick us out like that?” he asked. “They’re serving everybody else.”
The cops agreed they had a right to be upset.
“I get it,” one of them said to the truckers. “I’m sorry that it happened to you here.”
But they still made sure they left, providing them with contact information to a Denny’s corporate office.
It took three weeks for this to become public, but it quickly went viral. Denny’s issued a statement.
“A member of Denny’s leadership team has been in contact with these two valued guests involved in this restaurant visit to ensure they know this situation has our full attention. We are actively investigating the incident reported at Denny’s in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At the conclusion of the investigation, we will take appropriate disciplinary action.”
The Sioux Falls Denny’s Facebook page was one place people could express their outrage. More such comments are likely in the coming days.I saw the video and shared and commented on it.
While most people were appalled by the treatment and said they were disgusted — but not very surprised — some people who responded chose to blame the men. They had zero evidence to do so, but still, that was their immediate reaction.
Jeremy Paulsen of Brookings, whose Twitter account shows a devotion to conservative voices, was sure they were to blame.
“They obviously caused a disturbance before the camera started rolling and then played victim once they pulled out their phone to record,” Paulsen wrote. “Usually the way these videos work without full context.”
So, he was sure the men were in the wrong and deserved to be treated so shabbily. That is very revealing.
Others were also quick to assume the worst. These guys had to have done something, right? Why would they be ignored when they tried to order food, ordered from the restaurant, and be escorted out by police?
Well, it is obvious, isn’t it? They had the temerity to be Black in public in South Dakota. That’s why they couldn’t order food and were forced by two armed police officers to exit the chain restaurant.
To their credit, Dakota News Now tracked one of the men down and interviewed him on Monday. He explained the incident, and the reporter received a statement from Denny’s President and Chief Executive Officer Roland Spongberg, who said they took “immediate action.”
The Denny’s server who refused to take the men’s order is no longer with the restaurant, a polite way of saying she was fired. Other staffers will undergo a “dedicated training program” to avoid such incidents in the future.
“We regret this incident and want to apologize to the guests involved,” Spongberg said.
That’s encouraging to learn. But the reality is, this is not an isolated incident, either for Denny’s or for South Dakota.
There have been complaints about racism treatment of Black customers at Denny’s (an uncopyrighted version of its logo from Wikimedia Commons is seen above) for at least three decades. In 1994, Denny’s paid $54 million to settle lawsuits filed by thousands of Black customers refused service, forced to wait longer or made to pay more than white customers. Some of the complaints came from six Secret Service agents who were ignored at a restaurant while their white colleagues, seated with a Black supervisor, were quickly served.
South Dakota’s long, tortured history of racism is well-known. A June 27, 2019, report from the United States Commission on Civil Rights made it clear this poisonous behavior is still alive and sick in our state.
“The South Dakota Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is concerned that subtle forms of racism threaten the lives and liberties of South Dakotans. The Advisory Committee, through deliberation at the beginning of its current term, decided to examine the subtle forms of racism in the state. The Committee held three briefings; the first in Aberdeen, the second on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and the third in Pierre. At each briefing the Committee heard compelling testimony about the barriers faced by communities of color, particularly Native American communities, in South Dakota.
“South Dakota has a history of tumultuous race relations and discrimination. One early example was the federal government’s campaign in the late nineteenth century to push the Sioux out of the Black Hills in South Dakota, a sacred land to many Native American tribes. This campaign resulted in a treaty that ceded Sioux land in the Black Hills to the federal government. The Supreme Court stated about these events that, ‘a more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealing will never, in all probability, be found in our history …’”
One of the most recent examples was at the Central States Fair in Rapid City, where security guards forced at least three Native American men to turn their T-shirts and clothing inside out before entering.
“One shirt read ‘NDN Collective,’ another read ‘American Indian Movement,’ and a third was a vest with patches reading ‘American Indian Movement,’ ‘I am My Brother’s Keeper,’ and ‘Remember Wounded Knee,’” according to a report from NDN Collective.
The guards claimed they were ordered to prevent anyone from entering the fairgrounds with clothing that had organizational logos or colors. That’s not what the fair policy is, however. It forbids “exposed underwear, vulgar or inappropriate clothing, gang colors or gang signs are not allowed.”
In addition, a quick scan of the crowd revealed people wearing clothing and caps with biker logos, military insignia, company branded items and numerous other decorations. But only the Native Americans wearing items they liked and showing causes and groups they support were asked to turn their clothes inside out.
NDN organizer Hermus Bettelyoun said it was more of the same racist garbage.
“This type of discrimination is nothing new — we’ve dealt with it throughout history, and continue to deal with it to this day,” Bettelyoun said. “It’s blatant, it’s dangerous, and it disrupts lives. Our city tries to address racism with band-aid solutions like cultural sensitivity training — yet the treatment of Indigenous people doesn’t change. Here we are in everyday life, being discriminated against because Indigenous people organizing to protect our community through deep rooted love is seen as a threat. When will it stop?”
Central States Fair general manager Ron Jeffries told KEVN Black Hills Fox that it was all a simple misunderstanding. Whoops.
“We’re sincerely sorry for the mix-up and the lack of communication on our part to get the word completely through the entire organization, but as I mentioned, there are so many moving parts and 400 or so people out here working on behalf of the fair that it’s hard to get the correct message to everybody for every incident,” Jeffries said.
That’s not good enough. Such racist treatment has been going on in this country and state for decades and there is no sign it will go away. Many of us thought we had racism on the run in the 1970s and ‘80s, but it is a weed with deep roots.
Just ask Damon Whitfield and Hector Madeira, who tried to get a bite to eat and ended up facing a pair of police officers.
Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states and contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets.
