It's unfortunately fair to say that many of us don't count an incident as discriminatory unless the incident is on a larger scale or involves violence.
But one disabled woman, Hunter, who goes by @lizardqween on TikTok, posted a series of videos to point out discrimination can appear in much more subtle forms, like where a delivery driver leaves an order of food.
In the first video of the series, Hunter explained she had placed an order using the Grubhub delivery service app and she included a 26% tip for the delivery driver.
Unfortunately, upon arrival at her home, the delivery driver texted her:
"Tip your [drivers] better."
"Enjoy your food."
Hunter then discovered the driver had left her bag of food in the middle of her driveway, which was inaccessible to her due to the gravel.
Hunter replied to the driver:
"I'm in a wheelchair and can't get my food now, you a**hole."
"I tipped above 25%. Don't like it? Don't take the order."
The driver did not rectify the situation by relocating the food, and simply replied:
"Glad to be of service."
Hunter said in the video:
"When people reference disability discrimination, this is kind of what they're referencing."
Due to the driver's actions, Hunter had to wait for her caregiver to return home and bring the food to her from the driveway, which was more than an hour later.
Hunter additionally pointed out she was not interested in the monetary value of the interaction but the moral one.
After receiving little response from Grubhub, she was reaching out to TikTok in an effort to raise awareness about disability discrimination, and to demonstrate to Grubhub how this qualified as a discriminatory interaction.
You can watch the video below:
The video quickly went viral with 444.4K likes and over 24-thousand comments, furious on Hunter's behalf.
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Overwhelmed by the response, Hunter shared a thank-you video and promised to share more about her story, specifically the extent of her interactions with Grubhub.
You can watch that video here:
In Hunter's third video, she went back to the beginning of her interactions with Grubhub, when she first reported the driver's behavior.
The representative replied:
"I understand this wasn't the experience you expected, and I deeply apologize for that inconvenience. We will work to improve the service."
The representative also offered Hunter a Grubhub discount code of 15% that she could use in the next 30 days, though she was uncomfortable with the idea of using their services again in the future.
After that initial interaction and 15% code, Hunter had posted her first video to TikTok in response, which resulted in many TikTokers reaching out to the delivery service, which inspired them to look into the matter further.
But as recommended by a few TikTokers, the issue was also taken over to Twitter, where Hunter publicly called them out and sent their Grubhub Care account private messages.
Hunter said at this time:
"Unfortunately, they decided not to do much and said that they were going to review the problem and that I would find out more later in a follow-up."
You can see that video here:
More progress was made through Twitter DMs but still not the progress Hunter was hoping to see.
Hunter emphasized that she was not in this situation for the money or really even to fix the situation for herself, but to otherwise ensure that a situation like this would not arise for another disabled person.
Eventually, the company reached out via phone call, email, and text message, informing Hunter of the investigation that was underway regarding the driver's behavior and employment.
They also gave her a $100 gift card in addition to the 15% code that had been provided previously. Hunter found this ironic, as she didn't feel comfortable using the service again, fearful that the driver would pick up her order and attempt to retaliate.
Grubhub eventually tweeted about letting go of the employee over the situation.
"We've heard your concerns and want you to know we take this matter very seriously."
"Grubhub has a zero-tolerance policy for discriminatory behavior from our delivery partners, and after investigating this incident, we have ended the driver's contract."
Despite the driver's departure, TikTok and Twitter were not particularly pleased by this outcome.
TikTok and Twitter agreed with Hunter this wasn't about the money, but about accessibility and safety.
They were also concerned going forward about the driver retaliating in some way, either by returning to her address or by taking a job at another delivery company where she might place future orders.
Though, this interaction seems like reason enough that Hunter might second-guess any of these delivery services in the future.
