McDonald’s worker fired after viral video shows him hurling n-word at customer

The latest McDonald's confrontation took place Thursday in Spring Hill, Fla., just outside of Tampa.

Jan 15, 2019

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In what appears to have become a frequent occurrence, another Florida McDonald’s has become a battleground between workers and customers.

This time, the employee ended up fired, or with a to-go order of that smoke, after a viral video showed him hurling slurs at a customer. The latest confrontation took place Thursday in Spring Hill, Fla., just outside of Tampa.

In a statement on Monday, McDonald’s said that the still unnamed employee was indeed fired, according to the Washington Post

“I am aware of the incident involving one of my employees earlier this week,” Javier Ilias, the franchise’s owner, said. “The disturbance with the customer prompted our management team to call the police right away; and we did an immediate investigation on this matter.

Here is what happened, writes the news outlet: The 90-second video opens with a Black male customer standing at the drive-through window shooting cell phone video while an unnamed McDonald’s employee, a white woman, holds a phone to her ear threatening to call police. The customer is telling the woman that an employee called him a racial slur.

“You just called me a [n-word]!” the unnamed man yells repeatedly. Another employee, a young white man, walks into the frame and yells at the customer that he “don’t give a f—” before boldly yelling the slur into the camera.

The female employee, The Post writes, told 911 that the man threatened a manager and attempted to climb into the drive-through window. In the video, he does snatch open the window before being pushed back.

The raging white male employee comes back into the frame and yells the slur again, causing the customer to seemingly celebrate having his claim repeatedly vindicated.

You’re getting fired,” the customer says, pointing at the people behind the glass window one by one, The Post writes. “You’re getting fired. You’re getting fired. Fired. Fired! Fired! You’re getting fired, too, because you’re a manager. You’re supposed to handle this differently.”

Violent outbursts happen so often often at McDonald’s that they have their own YouTube genre. A search for “McDonald’s” on WorldstarHipHop on Monday turned up 118 videos, but nothing from the drive-through in Spring Hill, Fla., north of Tampa.

“This behavior goes against the values and standards that I expect from employees in my restaurants,” Javier Ilias, the franchise’s owner, said. “This employee displayed improper and unacceptable conduct and is no longer with the company.”

The other employees in the video were not disciplined. The man recording the video was not charged with a crime. The confrontation came nearly two weeks after a separate incident at a McDonald’s in nearby St. Petersburg, Fla., on New Year’s Eve.

In that instance, Daniel Taylor, 41, a customer reached across the counter and grabbed employee Yasmine James by the shirt during a dispute over straws. James responded by unloading a flurry of punches on Taylor as the video instantly went viral.