[UPDATE] Chipotle Is Rehiring Manager Who Refused To Serve A Group Of Black Men Before They Paid
UPDATE, 11/21/18, 12:00 p.m.: NBC News reports Chipotle has, in fact, offered the manager in the video her job back after an apparent investigation into Masud Ali's alleged tweets. Chipotle issued the following statement to the outlet after the offer:
Based on our review, we have offered our manager her job back. While our normal protocol was not followed serving these customers, we publicly apologize to our manager for being put in this position. We will work to continue to ensure that we support a respectful workplace for our employees and our customers alike.
Yesterday, the manager (who's now been identified as Dominque Moran) told the StarTribune she "was obviously trying to do the right thing,” when she refused service to the group of young men. She continued: "I told Chipotle to tell the boys I say sorry...I didn’t think I would lose my job, I thought I did something good by standing up for my people.”
Moran hasn't yet decided whether or not she will take her job back.
ORIGINAL POST, 11/20/18: A St. Paul, Minnesota, Chipotle manager was fired this week after video of her refusing to serve a group of young black men before they paid went viral. Days later, the chain is considering re-hiring her, HuffPost reports.
The below video of and from Masud Ali, 21, begins with her telling Ali and his friends "you gotta pay because you never have money when you come in here." Both she and another employee refuse to make the men's orders unless they could provide proof of income.
Can a group of young well established African American get a bite to eat after a long workout session. @ChipotleTweets ?? pic.twitter.com/Sj8RaeINj6
- Masud Ali 🍑 (@Masudaliii) November 16, 2018
The video has been retweeted more than 30,000 times and watched more than 7 million times since it was posted on Friday.
“It sounded really racist-the way she said it was racist,” Ali told the StarTribune of the manager in the video on Friday. “She asked for proof of income as if I’m getting a loan.” The video also shows a white woman being served her food without being asked for any kind of money upfront.
Shortly after the video went viral, Chipotle issued the following statement:
Regarding what happened at the St. Paul restaurant, the manager thought these gentlemen were the same customers from Tuesday night who weren’t able to pay for their meal. Regardless, this is not how we treat our customers and as a result, the manager has been terminated and the restaurant is being retrained to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.
Per the paper, Chipotle then elaborated further on its original statement, saying they “don’t ask customers to pay for their meals prior to making them in our restaurants. The manager should have made their food and withheld giving it to them until they paid for it.”
The manager's firing led to public outcry, as there were reportedly several tweets on Ali's account that referred to dining and dashing in the past. According to the Miami Herald, one of the several alleged 2015 tweets read "Guys we’re borrowing food... that’s it. And if the lady tries to stop you at the door don’t hesitate to truck the sh*t out of that b*tch.” The alleged tweets have since been removed.
The news of the reported tweets led Chipotle chief Communications Officer Laurie Schalow to tell Fox News on Sunday they might revisit their decision to fire the manager in the video as "we now have additional information which needs to be investigated further. We want to do the right thing, so after further investigation we will re-train and re-hire if the facts warrant it.”
('You Might Also Like',)
