by Patrick Appel
Lisa Wade claims that, because the original flight attendants were white men, tipping them never caught on:
If stewards were so capable and appreciated, why not offer one’s appreciation in cash? The answer is, in short, because tips were for Black people. Black porters on trains and boats were tipped as a matter of course but, according to [Kathleen Barry, author of Femininity in Flight], tipping a White person would have been equivalent to an insult. A journalist, writing in 1902, captured the thinking of the time when he expressed shock and dismay that “any native-born American could consent” to accepting a tip. ”Tips go with servility,” he said. Accepting one was equivalent to affirming “I am less than you.”
The Dish 