I came across an ambiguous organization with a website located at http://www.mfha.net. The letters in their web address stand for the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance (how is that for a politically correct name?!).

The group has recently made a major push towards educating minorities on the importance of tipping. Whether it is explaining why someone should tip a waiter for good service or the reason for tipping a bellboy at a hotel, the goal of the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is to explain to minorities why they need to be tipping.

Wait, wait, wait. Hang on just a second. Let me see if I have this straight.

Am I understanding this correctly? Is the main purpose of the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance (try typing that name three times in a row real fast!) to educate minorities about tipping?

If this is accurate, then I have a problem with some stereotypical conclusions that are being made about tipping.

I believe there are a few too many assumptions being made by the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance and their so-called goal of educating minorities about tipping:

1. They assume that minorities currently do not tip or tip very little.
2. They assume that non-minorities currently tip well enough.
3. They assume that minorities do not understand the purpose of tipping.
4. They assume that non-minorities understand the concept of tipping.

I am willing to give the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance the benefit of the doubt for trying to do something productive for the sake of improving our society. But so does every other radical liberal group out there I have ever seen. They all seem to have good reasons on the surface for their causes, which is why so many people fall for them. However, the efforts of this particular group on the subject of tipping should be especially insulting to the very minorities they are seeking to educate.

If you are an African-American or a Latino, how does it make you feel to hear that there is a group designed specifically for educating you about the importance of tipping? Additionally, does it anger you that Caucasian people are not included in this massive effort?

One of the primary business contributors to this questionable cause is the Outback Steakhouse. They have already given over $10,000 to promote the importance of tipping to minorities.

During the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance convention held recently in San Diego, California, a representative for Outback Steakhouse explained that uncommonly low tips left by minority customers had greatly accelerated server turnover in some units.

I sincerely doubt that low tipping by minorities is the ONLY reason why the restaurant chain has lost so many employees. But, it certainly sounds like a good enough reason to the executives at Outback Steakhouse because it perpetuates the stereotype of minorities.

Why is it assumed that a member of a minority race is poor and uneducated? Again, is this not insulting to minorities? How do organizations like the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance get away with what they are doing when it is so obvious how disingenuous they are?

I may be wrong about the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance. Maybe they actually think they are doing a good thing for minorities. If I were a member of a minority group, though, I would not be taking this very well.

How would this make you feel if you were a minority?