In an effort to appease the public, Mexican fast casual restaurant Chipotle may have jumped the gun when they fired a manager at of one of their St. Paul, Minnesota locations.
A video appeared on Twitter from user Masud Ali, and it appeared to show a manager of a local Chipotle discriminating against a group of young African-American men. In the video, filmed by the boys themselves, the manager, who has been identified as Dominique Moran, tells them they need to pay for their food. In the video she smiles as she speaks, but is adamant that they will not be given their food until after they pay.
Moran tells the young men. whom she clearly recognizes:
"You gotta pay because you never have money when you come in here."
Ali, posted the video to Twitter and it received over 7 million views but the story didn't end there. Chipotle was tagged in the video and upon seeing the social media outrage, promptly fired Moran.
Can a group of young well established African American get a bite to eat after a long workout session.… https://t.co/QMvcj292A6— Masud Ali 🍑 (@Masud Ali 🍑)1542347361.0
Turns out there was much more to the story,
Moran wasn't lying when she said the men never have money when they come to the restaurant, It was quickly pointed out that Ali and his friends have a long history of "dining and dashing." In fact, Ali brazenly bragged about it on his social media accounts.
Twitter was quick to point out all the time Ali posted about stealing from restaurants.
@Masudaliii @ChipotleTweets Keep this pinned tweet pinned man. It’s a great idea. https://t.co/iqbExEdJry— j Michael (@j Michael)1542717909.0
@Masudaliii @ChipotleTweets https://t.co/QZQUmOuG4i— Amber 💎 (@Amber 💎)1542717838.0
@Masudaliii @ChipotleTweets https://t.co/pfzt9K0olT— Tim Spriggs (@Tim Spriggs)1542728642.0
@Masudaliii @ChipotleTweets This is why https://t.co/BWkGPT0JnU— ⅅ α ν є ℒᎯ (@ⅅ α ν є ℒᎯ)1542726715.0
For her part, Moran posted on Twitter that after the truth came out, she had gotten her job back.
Racism is a real issue that I do not take lightly. Racism must be addressed, but what happened here was just wrong.… https://t.co/7CnQ8abkse— Dom (@Dom)1542661058.0
People were reaching out and giving her support.
@Dom3Marie This shows that the #Chipotle girl acted correctly and that @Masudaliii is a liar and did not want to pa… https://t.co/k2UE8DtfYc— Antena305.com (@Antena305.com)1542678233.0
@BGTazer @PonieslikeBBQ @ernestorios786 @Dom3Marie @Masudaliii It was a part of a full set of screenshots https://t.co/kYll6EXvWu— katt 😎🍷 (@katt 😎🍷)1542684925.0
@Dom3Marie Chipotle fired you falsely, laying claim to authenticity behind the false claims. You're a way bigger p… https://t.co/FqjH4kmsNi— Adam (@Adam)1542679715.0
@Dom3Marie I used to work in the restaurant industry. It's brutal out there and you have to make tough decisions so… https://t.co/9p6kZepVOT— Nem: The Infinity Watcher (@Nem: The Infinity Watcher)1542691122.0
A GoFundMe was set up for her with a goal of $10, 000.
I can’t believe the amount of support being offered to me. God is too good. 🙏🏼 https://t.co/kTwiq92mUN— Dom (@Dom)1542523214.0
@Dom3Marie Delighted you got so much support, Chipotle should be ashamed— liamwall (@liamwall)1542591837.0
@Dom3Marie I'm glad you've gotten support mate— yerrr (@yerrr)1542652035.0
@Dom3Marie Need more people like you..— Giovanni Papigeorgio 🅿️ (@Giovanni Papigeorgio 🅿️)1542640311.0
@Dom3Marie HELL YES!! This makes me so happy cause my ass was PISSED you got wrongly accused. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻— ☻❂ (@☻❂)1542738815.0
@Dom3Marie Thank God Twitter posts are forever 🤣— Lisafashionista (@Lisafashionista)1542553327.0
Maybe this is a lesson to us all that we need to stop for a moment and breathe before acting.
H/T: Huffington Post, City Pages