Racism, xenophobia, or any other type of prejudice are ugly to witness. A recent incident in Naperville, Illinois, has brought this kind of bigotry to the forefront — and it was all captured on video.
A Facebook user shared the video.
Mafer Hmurphy shared video of a recent visit to this Mobil convenience store on Facebook. The store clerk apparently took offense to the fact that a couple of his customers were speaking Spanish.
He apparently took exception to the language they were speaking.
While Spanish isn’t an official language of the United States, millions of Americans speak the language. In fact, the only country in the world with more Spanish speakers is… Spain .
The clerk is proud to be an American.
There’s nothing wrong with patriotism, but when nationalistic pride crosses the line into bigotry, nobody wins. The clerk proudly tells the two Spanish-speaking women that he’s an American, while he questions where they came from.
Is this how to treat customers?
The clerk continues his rant, asking one of the customers about her family members, who were visiting from Mexico . The clerk called them “illegals” before asking them to leave because they spoke Spanish.
“They need to go back to their country.”
After the incident played out, the clerk threatened the women, saying, “You’ll be sorry. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) will come.” He calms down a bit before telling the women that they’re “in the wrong country.”
The convenience store clerk wanted to get the women in trouble.
In a delicious bit of irony, it wasn’t the customers who got into trouble, but the racist clerk himself. He’s since been fired from his post at the gas station.
Remind you of anyone?
The man’s words sound pretty similar to President Donald T***p’s racist antics regarding a group of Democratic lawmakers known as the Squad. T***p appeared to revel in a crowd of his supporters chanting “Send her back”, directed at Rep. Ilhan Omar.
We live in a polarized time.
By some measures, political polarization in the United States is at its highest level since the Civil War. This means, in effect, that people with differing political beliefs are farther apart than ever.
Fortunately the event was caught on video.
While it’s always unsettling to see overt racism like this, the fact that it was all captured on video certainly helps bring it into focus. Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico condemned the clerk in a Facebook post.
What do you think?
Check out the video, then let us know your thoughts. Have you ever witnessed something like this? If so, how did you react? Let us know in the comments! h/t: Facebook | Mafer Hmurphy
Last Updated on July 20, 2019 by D