Something to say…
I’ve been holding my tongue way too long about what happened several years ago to zap my enthusiasm for blogging.
Many years ago—way back in 2007—l launched a Chicago-centric blog called 312 Dining Diva, where I enthusiastically covered the local dining scene. I got all the scoops, gossiped a little, and had so much fun spotlighting up-and-coming culinary personalities and introducing them to mainstream. But it was the so-called gossip that got me in hot water and eventually made me want to shut down the entire operation.
My inbox was typically filled with invitations to restaurant and bar openings, interview requests for local and national culinary types, and so much salacious gossip that would even make Ron Jeremy blush.
I passed on a lot of the latter, though I did have fun with some “blind items” back in the day. But some of those gossipy emails were nothing to laugh about. This was the pre #MeToo era, and occasionally I’d get emails blasting male chefs, restaurateurs and bartenders I had so glowingly written about.
One shook me to the core, and it actually wasn’t gossip because the information came to me directly from the source. A restaurant employee requested me to put a prominent chef on blast in a blind item. She didn’t want her name or his name or even his occupation mentioned, but she wanted out there the dirty deed he had done.
I wrote the item so vague that I didn’t think anyone would be able to figure it out; however, I barely hit send and my phone was blowing up. And not in a good way.
First, the owner of the restaurant begged me to take down the item. He promised that the situation in question would be resolved now that it was “out in the open.” I texted the source to give her this update, and she was fine with me taking it down, so I did.
I thought that would be the end of it. Man, was I wrong.
Up next came the industry. I received a barrage of hate emails, text messages, phone calls, threats and social media tags about how horrible I was for putting this source’s information out there, and “how dare I use her pain to gain clicks on my site.” As I fended off these attacks, not once did I ever say I got the information directly from the source. This went on for weeks.
It had gotten to a point that whenever I went out to some local cocktail lounges and restaurants, I received dirty looks. It’s a shame that they all had the wrong information. I did nothing wrong.
Of course, I went on and continued to thrive in the media industry; however, my passion to write that blog came to a screeching halt. And when the #MeToo movement was in full bloom in the restaurant industry, my phone and e-mail were blowing up again with all sorts of stories of misdeeds. The same thing happened again in 2020 when the social justice movement inspired many industry workers to courageously tell their stories of mistreatment by employers and others in leadership positions.
It’s a new day, and I write as much positive content as possible. For peace of mind, I leave those types of stories for other publications. But if I truly see some injustice happening and I have a chance to blow it wide open again, you’d better believe I will not hesitate to call it out.
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Wow! Great article. Thank you!
Please keep speaking truth to power!!!!! We need more black women who are! I’m so glad I tapped in to you! I look forward to more!