Labor Activist Goes Low in Wage Hike Debate

A debate over whether Washington, D.C., restaurant workers should trade their tips for $15 an hour went off the rails after a labor activist race baited a black bartender who opposed the minimum wage hike.

Jessica Martin, a D.C. activist who serves on the board of directors of the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), alluded to Frank Mills as an "Uncle Tom" because of his opposition to Ballot Initiative 77. Mills, a bartender at Jack Rose in the city's Adams Morgan neighborhood, defended the tipped wage, disputing ROC arguments that tips directly lead to sexual harassment in the industry. Mills said the city's restaurant scene has been one of female empowerment.

"The very progressive city that D.C. is, there are female bosses, there's female bartenders, female owners. There are female head bartenders. There are female head servers. There are female head chefs. There are females that are cocktail queens and are beasts and we respect them more than anybody else," he said during the debate hosted by the D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild on Monday.

Martin interjected, but rather than challenging Mills's argument, she suggested he was recruited to speak because of his race. She accused the bartender of undermining ROC's attempt to help workers to better serve restaurant owners.

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