“I was at Papas, entered through the restaurant entrance to place an order when I passed these two young black men. I did not like the way they looked at me and I was nervous. As I was placing my order they came in. There was a man there waiting for his order. He was leaning up against the counter reading his tablet. This was peak business, after work, rush hour.

“Those two did not get in line to place an order. They stood right there, together, shoulder to shoulder, and stared at the man with the tablet. The man that was going to take my order noticed this. The man with the tablet did not have a clue. The employee told those guys to leave, that they had to stop coming in and causing trouble and that someone gets robbed every time they come around. I started to panic. I got out of there, looked at a man reading his smart phone on the bench outside and told him to be careful and got in the car with my friend. As we pulled off they were coming out, hovering around the man on the bench, just looking at him like body snatchers with wide, empty eyes or something, like that movie when I was a kid that frightened me so much. Why has it gotten so bad? There have always been blacks nearby, down the road at Hillsway and Perring. But that corner is getting so bad just recently. The owner almost got killed by two of them last year!”

-Donna Lang

Donna, its Oprah’s fault!

Ever since the sign out front went up declaring that Oprah rated Papas as having the best crab cakes in town, the black clientele has tripled. They have also expanded their seafood operation and put in a seven-day package good carryout so that the Dindus can get their 40 of malt liquor there. The main building has four entrances and both buildings have outdoor seating. In terms of security, it’s a nightmare. One bouncer could not handle this layout. I have walked by at 4:30 in the morning and have seen drunken Dindus sprawling and arguing on the benches. Not only did Papas not narrow his cuisine and alcohol selection to discourage Dindu business, he went for the gusto and invited Dindu business by expanding in line with their tastes. The Oprah endorsement was the kiss of death. I have heard black women—decent, non-welfare, working, married black women in two adjacent subdivisions—discussing how good Papas food is, and it really is mediocre. My son won’t even eat there.

The main dynamic has little to do with attracting young thug customers, for the drunks that use the package goods carryout are my age. What the thugs look for is a place that decent black people like to frequent and are welcome. If a thug has a girlfriend whose mother and aunt rave about how good Papas crab cakes are and that the Goddess of Dindustan, the very First Sister of the Ingrate States of Amoneyca, has declared this eatery to be a Mecca worthy to receive pious Dindus on their Adult Onset Diabetes/Gout Hajj, then thugs will have plenty of cover. Think of Papas as a watering hole, the thugs as lions, the whites as overweight gazelles in powered wheel chairs, and those appreciative middle class black customers as the high grass the lion uses to stalk his prey. The next stage is for a decent black customer to catch the tail end of an employee telling these thugs to get lost and cry racism on their behalf and Papas will go the way of Denny’s with Dindu fistfights erupting among customers, providing stampede-like cover for the tawny black lions of Dindustan to bring down their pallid prey.