‘Leave no tips’: Chicago server assumes Platinum Amex card doesn’t belong to Black man. Then he swipes it

With this company’s cards having some of the highest annual fees on the market, Amex cards have become a status symbol. This Black Chicago man knows it and is tired of microaggressions at restaurants when he uses his Amex card to pay. 

“One of the craziest things about being Black is that there are so many opportunities for it to drive you crazy if you let it,” says Zach (@callmebyzach) in a video with an on-screen caption that says, “the worst part about having the platinum or gold Amex as a Black person.” 

What Are Amex Cards?

Amex is short for American Express. Amex cards have a range of benefits, like rewards on travel, shopping, dining, and other areas, like most credit card companies. The platinum card has a $825 annual fee, and the gold card has a $325 annual fee. Zach has both cards, and he says he often experiences microaggressions when he goes out and pays with one of them.

“I Can’t Tell You the Amount of Times….”

In the video, Zach recounts several microaggressions he experienced as a Black person at restaurants. Microaggressions are “the everyday, subtle, intentional — and oftentimes unintentional — interactions or behaviors that communicate some sort of bias toward historically marginalized groups,” says Professor Kevin Nadal in an NPR interview. 

Zach recounts one experience where he went into a restaurant and the staff thought he was there to pick up food for a delivery service. 

“Doesn’t matter the restaurant, how fancy or not fancy it is, … I am assumed to be delivering food,” Zach says. He says he let it go in an instance with a sushi restaurant because there was only one table of diners, but a backlog of delivery orders.

In another experience, he explains that when he’s dining with a non-Black person, when the server returns with the card in the checkbook after swiping it, they often assume the Amex card belongs to the other person he’s dining with.

“If I’m not dining with another Black person, they always pass my card to the other person. This wouldn’t normally be a thing, but this has now happened hundreds of times to me,” he says.

This has even happened with a woman, and typically, one might assume the card belongs to the man. 

“This weekend, my friend was in the city. She is Peruvian. She is fair-skinned. We went out. She is a woman; I am a man. My name is Zach. Her name, in my opinion, does not look like somebody that’s normally called Zach. So, irrespective to the race factor, my name is Zach. We put down one card because I paid, and it happened again at that restaurant,” Zach explained.

The video has almost 715,200 views, 121,300 likes, and 2,000 comments.

Viewers Weigh In

Unfortunately, Zach is not alone in picking up on these subtle microaggressions or unfortunate trends. Other Black people in the comments section voice similar experiences.

“Yeah they be hella confused when I walk into the centurion lounge by myself,” says one comment.

“Make them uncomfortable. ASK THE SERVER WHY THEY ASSUMED,” suggests another.

“I have an Amex and the person checked my id and the card four times before she ran it, I finally had to say run the [expletive] card,” someone else says.

“My dad let me use his black card and someone threatened to call the cops on me lol. Granted i was like 17. He came to the store and went the [f] off lol,” says another.

“Microaggressions really do show up everywhere. It even happens to me at the grocery store. I work from home, and when I shop during the day the cashiers will assume I’m doing an Instacart order. Smh,” another chimes in.

AllHipHop has reached out to Zach for comment via TikTok direct message and email, and to American Express via email.

@callmebyzach One weird little quirk of having the American Express gold or platinum card #amex #finance #dining ♬ original sound – Callmebyzach

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