It does in general. Racism is still alive and well in the US, although if most white racists knew how many non-whites handled their food on a day to day basis, they'd starve to death.
That said, there is a lot less racism going on in the Bay Area. This shouldn't really be an issue as long as you speak clearly and enunciate your words (the hallmark of any good salesman, really).
In many ways though being a 'different'/'ethnic'/'cultural', whatever you want to call it, brand and marketing as such can be brilliant for a business. I come from an arab/white american background and everyone within that culture will stay loyal to anyone with a good business that is also arab(to some degrees of cultural diversity). With that comes your base market to keep your business going, then because of that loyalty you have people hear about it and come regardless of their backgrounds. If you're running a good business those people become loyal to your brand even if you don't sell hotdogs and hamburgers per se (the typical 'white american' food :P).
No, what I meant is that white people selling ethnic food are actually in disadvantage. Curries are Indian, yakitories are Japanese, croissants are French. If they say satays are Indonesian, then, an Asian looking chef automatically scores extra points for being of a related origin.
I think what you're debating is similar to how someone could tell me "gay" means happy. Yes, we all know that's the origin of the word - but in 2013, if you hear someone describe someone else(or something else) as "gay" you can probably assume they don't mean "happy".
I never thought of "thug" as conveying an implication of the subject being black. "Thug" to me is more of a attitude / mindset / way of life, not something that corresponds to race. IOW, it's as easy to be a white "thug" as a black "thug". In fact, now that I think about it, the context in which I usually think of the word "thug" is the phrase "jack booted thug" which has connotations of Nazis, who were - as far as I know - mostly white. The other thing the word "thug" brings to mind for me, is the stereotyped image of a big white (Italian, probably) guy in an expensive suit, working as an "enforcer" for some mafioso type or something.
Maybe it varies by region, age or other factors, but I would not think of myself as being racist towards blacks by using the word "thug".
That said, there is a lot less racism going on in the Bay Area. This shouldn't really be an issue as long as you speak clearly and enunciate your words (the hallmark of any good salesman, really).
Disclosure: I'm white.