Black waiter accuses UK family of racial slur

LONDON - A black waiter at a hotel in Florida has filed a case against a family of British holidaymakers for telling the management it did not want to be waited on by black staff.

According to a report in The Times, the family left the instruction when they checked into the beachside Ritz-Carlton in the city of Naples on February 28. It said it preferred not to be served by “people of colour” or staff with “foreign accents”.

The demand was allegedly made on behalf of Edward Staros, the hotel’s vice-president and managing director.

The black waiter, Wadner Tranchant, 40, a Haitian-born US citizen, who has been at the hotel for 15 years, said he had suffered discrimination.

Tranchant said he was not allowed to serve the Morgans at a March 12 banquet at the hotel’s Grill Restaurant because he was black.

Other staff received similar treatment on many occasions, Tranchant added.

Mike McDonnell, his lawyer, told the Naples Daily News that nine witnesses would testify that they had been told that the Morgans had not wanted to be served by blacks.

“My client was prevented from waiting on this couple because he was black,” he said.

The lawsuit seeks punitive and compensatory damages from the hotel for the alleged violation of the US Civil Rights Act.

The 450-room hotel, which made the 2009 Condi Nast Traveller Gold List, boasts on its website of its “impeccable service”.

Bruce Seagel, the hotel’s director of marketing, said last night that the company did not discuss pending litigation. (ANI)