Cinnabon said they fired an employee at a mall in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, after a video went viral of her shouting racist and Islamophobic comments at a Somali couple patronizing the store.
The video, posted by a TikTok user who said they are a cousin of the Somali woman who was at Cinnabon with her husband, shows a white female employee calling the couple the N-word and proclaiming that she is a racist. The couple is not shown in the video as the wife is the one recording.
“I am racist, and I’ll say that to the whole entire world,” the Cinnabon worker says to the camera.
According to the description of the GoFundMe post raising money for the couple’s legal fees, the incident began when the couple was buying a caramel pecan cinnamon roll from the shop, and the wife asked the worker for extra caramel. After being questioned about the extra caramel, the worker told the wife that “she could see” her squeezing the caramel through the “witch-craft bandana you’re wearing on top of your head,” referring to the woman’s hijab.
After that, the woman started recording the worker, who was only emboldened by the camera. When she realizes she’s being recorded, she tells the woman, “Do you want me to throw water on you?” The video jumps to a clip of the woman calling the couple the N-word and saying, “I am racist.” After the wife tells the worker that she’s “ruining” her own life with these actions, the worker gives the couple the middle finger.
The video continues, showing an expletive-filled back-and-forth between the husband and the worker. As the couple walks away, the worker sticks her butt out at them, and says, “that was meant for you.”
Cinnabon has responded to the video, which was reposted on X yesterday and had 10 million views at the time of publication.
“We’ve seen the disturbing video from the Cinnabon bakery in Ashwaubenon, WI, and we do not condone this behavior,” Cinnabon posted in the replies to the video on X and TikTok. “The former employee was immediately terminated by the franchise owner. Their actions do not reflect our values or the welcoming experience every guest deserves.”
The video comes at a time when President Donald Trump has been actively denigrating the Somali immigrant population, specifically saying he doesn’t want them in the country, while also targeting one of the most visible Somali immigrants in the country, Democratic Congresswoman Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Trump has called Omar “garbage,” commented on her hijab, and said the country of Somalia “stinks” and is “no good for a reason.”
The White House has accused Somali immigrants in Minnesota of committing $1 billion in tax fraud, citing a report from the New York Times, and alleged they have been taking over the state in “gangs.” Omar has responded to the Trump administration’s claims, condemning the president for “blaming the lawlessness of an individual on a whole community.”
“What we also know is that there is not a single evidence that the president or his cronies have put forth that there is any single resource from taxpayers in Minnesota that has gone to aid and abet terrorism,” Omar said at a rally.
“We are sick and tired of the president waking up one day and deciding to put forth falsehoods and demonize whole communities while the ignorant people that support him then take the lies that he’s spreading and use it as a fact,” she added.
