Thursday, February 17, 2022

‘Mopping the floor because he’s Black’: Taco Bell worker says he was fired for filming manager’s racist rant

John Wright
February 16, 2022

(TikTok/screen shot)

A Taco Bell employee says he was fired for filming his manager's racist rant about workers "mopping the floor because (they're) Black."

In the video, which went viral on TikTok, a manager at a Taco Bell in Lexington, Virginia, is shown saying, "(Employee’s name) is sweeping the floor because he is Black. (Another employee’s name) is mopping the floor because he is Black.”

According to a TikTok user who posted the video, the employee who filmed the manager had asked her, "Why do you always have me sweeping and mopping?"

The employee later told NBC Channel 10 that the manager, a white female, had fired him as a result of the incident.

“If my video wasn’t out there, if I didn’t have a video and it was just hearsay stuff, I don’t think nothing would have happened,” the employee, who asked to remain anonymous, told the station. “I think I still would have been out of a job, and they would still be working there, happily ever after.”

“She told me I could leave," the employee said of his manager. "I said ‘I’m not leaving until 11.’ That’s my usual time that my general manager put on there. She said, ‘Well I don’t need you.’ So we had words back and forth about me leaving, about me not coming in tomorrow, about how she didn’t need me.”

The employee also said he's received death threats over the video.

“I also had a threatening message from a number saying they were going to kill me and my kids," the employee said. "And they hoped I kept the ‘same energy’ when I was ‘holding my kids’ lifeless bodies.’”

According to Taco Bell's corporate office, the manager has since been fired.

“We take this seriously," the corporate office said. "Our franchisee who owns and operates this location immediately addressed the incident in line with their policies and has informed us that the person seen in the video is no longer working for them.”

The employee who filmed the manager's racist rant said he's reported the threats to police, and has since been offered his job back.

Watch the TikTok video and the station's report below.




Lexington Taco Bell employee fired after racist remark-filled TikTok video goes viral


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