Ohio restaurant owner forces black students to pre-pay for their meals because 'you people steal'

A group of black college students from Youngstown State University in Ohio, was reportedly told they need to pre-pay for their meal or wouldn't be served.

The incident started when Samora Savage and a group of friends and classmates went to Royal Grill Buffet in Boardman, a suburb of Youngstown.

The group was told they had to pay before being seated and initially agreed. Then, they noticed that other customers were paying after their meal.

Savage asked the manager why and, according to the Vindicator newspaper, was told “You people steal.”

“I couldn’t believe the way we were treated there,” she said.

The restaurant's manager, Jay Dong, said that "a lot of people steal." Dong admitted that he does sometimes make customers pay up front, and that the customers he makes pay up front are normally black. But, Dong said, this was not racial discrimination because he does not make all black customers pay first.

“If I don’t know them, and they all pay together and they try to run, I can usually catch one person and make them pay the bill," he told the paper. "But if they all pay separate and they run out, I can’t catch everyone."