Racists are just running rampant in 2020 and an Indiana Olive Garden had to clean up shop after a customer was out of line.
The restaurant recently fired one of their managers after complying with a customer who loudly demanded a non-black server, according to NBC News.
Sixteen-year-old Amira Donahue, a hostess at the restaurant in Evansville in southwestern Indiana, said the customer, a white woman, complained to a manager about her and the other black hostess working during the dinner rush.
“She made comments about me to my co-workers concerning my race and saying that I should work at a strip club instead,” Donahue told NBC News. “She asked if I’m even black and if I am from here.”
Donahue said the customer — who was with a handful of other people, including two children — was seated at a table that had a black server. At that point, the customer had really been set off, according to Donahue.
The customer then reportedly screamed her demand for a nonblack server to a manager, who actually agreed with her request, according to Donahue.
Maxwell Robbins, 22, a customer who witnessed the entire ordeal, told NBC News he was so disturbed by what transpired that he documented and posted it on Facebook as well as submitted multiple complaints to Olive Garden by phone.
The Facebook post had been shared more than 1,500 times as of Wednesday afternoon.
Robbins, who was dining with his wife and one of their friends, also said that the manager complied with the customer’s demand without hesitation.
Robbins wrote in his Facebook post that the customer should’ve been refused service for even making such a demand. He also said it is “disgusting” that the manager would honor it, especially considering the restaurant’s diverse staff.
Donahue said she was so upset by the incident that she began crying, which Robbins said he witnessed.
“The young lady was in tears and had no one to support her,” Robbins said. “So I felt if I didn’t write this post, nothing would have happened and she would continue to go to work for a place that she feels uncomfortable at and unwanted at.”
Donahue added the manager made a decision that the customer was more important than two of his employees.
Meagan Bernstein, a spokeswoman for Olive Garden, said Wednesday the restaurant chain has zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind. Bernstein said the company completed an investigation.
“As a result of our investigation, we made the decision to separate with the manager involved,” she said.
