Student finds racial slur on receipt from UNT dining establishment
This story was updated at 5:21 p.m. Thursday.
UNT has declined to close Krispy Krunchy Chicken in the Union after a student demanded the university do so following an incident Tuesday when a store employee typed in a racial slur on the student’s receipt.
UNT Dining Services terminated the employee Tuesday after an investigation, a tweet from President Neal Smatresk said.
I need answers……. pic.twitter.com/AMorwa9YtC
— Chels. (@ChelseaMonAmour) April 17, 2018
“UNT operates the food outlet in the Union where the incident occurred earlier this week and does not believe that the unacceptable conduct of a single student employee warrants closing the outlet,” UNT spokesperson Leigh Anne Gullett said. “In addition to offering a convenient food option for the university community, the outlet provides job opportunities for eight to 10 students and two full-time employees who treat our students, faculty, staff and visitors with respect and dignity each day.”
“From listening to discussions in social media, it appears as though assumptions are being made about the race of the person responsible,” Smatresk said in an email to the UNT community Wednesday. “It is important to know that both the customer and employee were the same race, and regardless of other societal views it is my belief that the use of this term is never OK.”
Communications major Chelsea Shaw took to Twitter Tuesday to post a photo of a receipt obtained at 3:22 p.m. from a restaurant at the Union where the cashier (ID #3088) typed “N*****” instead of her name. She said she “[doesn’t] understand” and “needs answers.” A release from her attorney Justin Moore Wednesday expressed her demand that the store close.
Gullett said Thursday that UNT has determined only one employee is responsible and is continuing to investigate. She said UNT is also looking at what it can do differently.
In a Facebook post, Moore said it was the cashier, not the cook, who handed her the receipt “instantaneously.” Shaw told Moore the cashier was not African American and that the cook nearby “never came close to a register,” according to the post.
UNT has not released the name of the former employee responsible.
Moore said Krispy Krunchy Chicken has not reached out to Shaw to provide further explanation.
Gullett said UNT is proud of the outlet manager’s response to the incident, “including apologizing to the patron.”
Our Mean Green family values respect and prides itself on inclusion. It is completely unacceptable and not who we are as a community. We acted immediately to identify the person responsible and that person has been terminated.
— Neal Smatresk (@UNTPrez) April 17, 2018
Shaw tweeted that she went to management before posting the picture online. She said “they don’t know” who did it.
DEVELOPING STORY: Bill McNeace, Executive Director of Retail Dining Services says the employee who entered a racial slur onto a UNT student’s receipt was the cook at Krispy Krunchy Chicken & has been fired!
? SHOT FROM IPHONE #JadeTheJournalist ⚓ pic.twitter.com/QOjlHchfgT— JadeJacksonOnline.com (@IAMJADETHEGREAT) April 17, 2018
Executive Director of Retail Dining Services Bill McNeace said the cook responsible for the comment has been fired.
“When it became apparent that it happened, [the cook] came out [and] apologized to the manager,” McNeace told the North Texas Daily.
“Our Mean Green family values respect and prides itself on inclusion,” Smatresk said in a tweet. “It is completely unacceptable and not who we are as a community.”
Shaw did not respond to requests for a comment, saying on Twitter she only wishes to speak with Smatresk. Smatresk has since reached out to Shaw via Twitter to meet with her.
Brianna Adams and Jade Jackson contributed to this report.
Image: Courtesy Twitter Chelsea Shaw
Okay that was a d!ck move and all, and the jerk needed to be fired, but am I the only one who thinks that closing the whole restaurant down with it is a bit much? I know an employee who works there who’s very a sweet old black lady. I can’t imagine her losing her job just because one employee was probably the opposite. Letting the jerk get fired and have it ruin his resume should be enough punishment on it’s own, without punishing anyone else.
Why hasn’t the cook’s name been released? Why isn’t the media exploring the strange logic of a black cook using a racial slur against a black customer without provocation and the fact that the customer claims the receipt was issued by a white cashier? Why would the cook issue the receipt? A lot of unanswered questions which someone deliberately doesn’t want answered.