GOP hopeful Herman Cain admits he refused pizza to black neighborhood

[Perilloux]

Amerigo Vespucci (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-13-11 01:36 PM
Original message
GOP hopeful Herman Cain admits he refused pizza to black neighborhood



http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/13/gop-hopeful-herma... /

In a startling admission recently, Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, said that he would apply his experience in business to a potential job in the White House: specifically, his experience in denying pizza deliveries to a black neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska.

Cain, who is himself black, said that because the neighborhood was violent he refused to send delivery drivers there, and that he'd apply the same logic to his foreign policy decisions.

“When I first became president of Godfather’s Pizza, there was a very dangerous part of town in the black community where I wouldn’t allow my restaurants to deliver because we had kids beat, robbed,” he reportedly said.

"And I said ‘if I won’t send my son over there, I’m not going to send someone else’s son or daughter over there.’ Last week in Omaha, Nebraska, that same neighborhood that I wouldn’t deliver in — that they are delivering in now — a Pizza Hut driver was killed."

Wait for it ....

Liberal_Stalwart71 (1000+ posts)Mon Jun-13-11 01:40 PM
Response to Original message
1. O.K., can we NOW officially call him an Uncle Tom??!?!?! n/t

Edited on Mon Jun-13-11 01:43 PM by Liberal_Stalwart71

There it is, first response.

[pyackog]

At least some of the DUers are sane about it. I delivered pizzas for Pizza Hut when I was in college. Most of the other delivery guys were black. Most of the neighborhoods we delivered to were black. We stopped delivering to one all black area after the black delivery drivers kept getting robbed. Its the only the thing to do sometimes.

[Perilloux]

There are more responses now, but I'm on my son's laptop & you would not believe how long it took me to post this OP. Anyone else want to bring over some more responses, feel free.

[NJCardFan]

I like the knee jerk response instead of trying to find out why.

[ralph wiggum]

A response to #1:

pipi_k (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-13-11 01:49 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. No.

He didn't deny pizza to the neighborhood because it was black.

He denied delivery to the neighborhood because it was violent. And just happens to be black at the same time.

I don't give a shit what color someone is. Refusing to send one's employees to an area known for violence is the sane thing to do.

You don't get points for "proving" how unracist you are by knowingly putting others' lives in danger.

democrat_patriot (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-13-11 01:44 PM
Response to Original message
2. Why is it wrong to not deliver in a violent area?

If my kid worked for his pizza chain, I'd commend his action not to put my kid in danger.

Black neighborhood - Uncle Tom?
Hispanic/white neighborhood - racist?

Very dangerous neighborhood where pizza delivery people are targeted, robbed, beaten and killed? - ???

tkmorris (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-13-11 02:09 PM
Response to Original message
12. Cain may be a jackass but I don't see a problem here.
A dangerous neighborhood is a dangerous neighborhood, and pizza delivery drivers are notorious targets for thieves. There are easily enough real issues to discredit this man, attempting to create controversy where none exists is not necessary.

Some rare moments of sanity from the DUmmies.

pipi_k (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-13-11 01:53 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. OK, you know what it is?
If it's a black Democrat who refuses to do that, it's perfectly fine.

If it's a black Republican who refuses to do it, it's "racism".


Hypocrisy. Pure and simple...

[FDK]

Blasphemer (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-13-11 02:10 PM
Response to Original message
13. So instead of usinging his influence to try to improve the quality of life in that area

He simply refused to do business there. Yes, that's a wonderful solution. I understand that delivery drivers are in a job that can put them at risk but there are many ways in which risk can be minimized. I wonder if he ever hired anyone who actually lived in this neighborhood?

Yes, I'm sure delivering pizzas to the area would have lowered the crime rate and greatly improved the quality of life there.

There's a reason why we call them DUmmies.

[Novaheart]

At least some of the DUers are sane about it. I delivered pizzas for Pizza Hut when I was in college. Most of the other delivery guys were black. Most of the neighborhoods we delivered to were black. We stopped delivering to one all black area after the black delivery drivers kept getting robbed. Its the only the thing to do sometimes.

One of my apartments in San Francisco was on the black side of the race line between Alamo Square (the postcard Victorians, white holdout enclave at the time) and the black section which is now white again as well.

Anyway... some pizza places wouldn't come there and some taxi requests would get lost in dispatch. While it pissed me off, and I did accuse one pizza place (run by Arabs) of racial discrimination, if these places would simply have done what delivery places do now and put a delivery map on their menu, it would have stopped a lot of annoyance.

The irritating part wasn't being in the no-go zone, it was the inconsistency and uncertainty. This was also before telephone credit card charges, which I would imagine makes a huge difference as does enhanced caller ID.

But business has to accept the bargain as well. If you aren't going to deliver to 99150 or if you aren't going to deliver "above Divisidero" then you have to accept that you can't deliver to the pockets of desirable business that you have always made an exception for. It's either/or. You can gerrymander but you can't spot-zone.

[pyackog]

One of my apartments in San Francisco was on the black side of the race line between Alamo Square (the postcard Victorians, white holdout enclave at the time) and the black section which is now white again as well.

Anyway... some pizza places wouldn't come there and some taxi requests would get lost in dispatch. While it pissed me off, and I did accuse one pizza place (run by Arabs) of racial discrimination, if these places would simply have done what delivery places do now and put a delivery map on their menu, it would have stopped a lot of annoyance.

The irritating part wasn't being in the no-go zone, it was the inconsistency and uncertainty. This was also before telephone credit card charges, which I would imagine makes a huge difference as does enhanced caller ID.

But business has to accept the bargain as well. If you aren't going to deliver to 99150 or if you aren't going to deliver "above Divisidero" then you have to accept that you can't deliver to the pockets of desirable business that you have always made an exception for. It's either/or. You can gerrymander but you can't spot-zone.

I would mostly agree with that. In the instance I referred to at my old job, it was two apartment buildings that were across the street from each other that both had a lot of drug dealing going on and junkies hanging around outside. They even got hip to what was going on because after awhile before we stopped going to those buildings, they would hang outside and try to buy the pizzas from us for like $5 each and they would tell us to just tell the manager they stole it from us when we got back.

There was one crackhouse I used to love delivering to because they kept everybody inside on the main guy always order about 10 pizzas and was good for at least a $50 tip. :D

[CueSi]

LOL! well...even in an institution like the military there are a few bad apples...and the local pizza joints got tired of having their pizzas stolen.

I was thinking the delivery drivers. There's always a couple potheads/functional drug addicts who work for the occasional free pizza and stuff. :p

~QC