Portland bakery fires employees for denying black woman service after closing


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PORTLAND, Ore. — Two employees of a bakery in Northeast Portland were fired earlier this month for denying a black woman service because the business had closed.

 

"Back To Eden Bakery" released several public apologies and statements following the incident, before letting the employees go. In one Facebook post, the bakery's co-owner wrote, "We are doing business in a gentrified neighborhood in a racist city within a racist state of a racist country.”

 

In one statement, "Back To Eden Bakery" says that according to its own surveillance video, a black woman named "Lillian", who is well known in the area as a "professional equity activist", entered at 9:06 p.m., after the bakery's closing time. Employees had also turned off the "Open" sign, but

 

several customers (all white) who had already ordered were still inside. Two other white women who went to the bakery two minutes before "Lillian", and were also informed that the business was closed for the night.


 

http://komonews.com/news/local/portland-bakery-fires-employees-for-denying-black-woman-service-after-closing-06-01-2018

 

And this is what gets me.....

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In the statement "Back To Eden" says the employees were fired because the woman and the "clamoring public" demanded they be fired.

So, a black women enters after closing time and when other white customers were turned away as well.  She plays the race card and people get fired for doing their jobs and for no other reason than SJW bitching and moaning.  This is the world we live in people.  A world where common sense and decency is replaced by  ######## idiots.

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This could turn into a wrongful termination suit for the employees if they're motivated enough. I'd be upset if I was let go for not playing favorites, especially after closing.

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Just now, satukoro said:

This could turn into a wrongful termination suit for the employees if they're motivated enough. I'd be ###### if I was let go for not playing favorites, especially after closing.

Companies are to afraid to actually use common sense anymore.  A person can no bitch about something, claim racism, and get companies to cave.  SJW, bunch of internet cowards/idiots, can now bitch enough to get their way.  Regardless if it is right or wrong.    And if I was one of those employees, I would def sue the company.  Not much of a case since the company publically stated that they did nothing wrong and caved to the pressure of the idiot Lillian.

 

Here is the while pathetic memo that the company released....


 

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We just became aware of the very disturbing incident that occurred last night in one of our establishments and want to do everything in our power to properly address the situation, making sure that nothing like this ever happens again. Back to Eden Bakery is 100% committed to being a welcoming and supportive environment for all customers who share our values of inclusivity and dismantling the white supremacist hetero-patriarchy. This is not just talk for us or a tactic to make us appear in any certain way.

 

Lillian, we are so incredibly sorry for the treatment you received from someone on our staff. What you experienced in our shop is absolutely egregious and we are already taking all of the necessary steps to deal with this appropriately. First and foremost, we have let the two staff members go immediately as there will never be room in our organization for anyone who is inclined to give such poor customer service. Admittedly we have had issues with staff trying to enforce our closing hours too firmly without being sensitive to the fact that that person came out of their way to support our business. Whatever their reason for denying you service is not acceptable and flies directly in the face of the experience we aim to provide our customers.

 

But we also recognize that simply firing the employees in question is not nearly enough to fully address the incident. Even though a very large portion of our staff are women of color and/or members of the LGBTQPOC community it is clear that we obviously have some more work to do to make sure that every single person we employ upholds our values and commitments. We have been supporters of the Equity and Beyond Workshops led by local social justice advocate Cameron Whitten, and will be seeking opportunities to provide inclusivity training for our organization moving forward. Already in the works, we are donating 10% of our Mother's Day sales to the Black mama Bail Out Project and will begin hosting Brown Hope, a reparations happy hour to directly support the Black community that supports us.

 

Knowing that we are doing business in a gentrified neighborhood in a racist city within a racist state of a racist country, we see it as our moral and personal responsibility to use our platform and privilege to support marginalized communities, educate the public about the very serious issues facing people of color and demand meaningful change. We are not only allied with you, but we would like to consider ourselves fully committed along with you to the social justice revolution this country sorely needs.

 

Having expressed all of that, we still do not feel that these words suffice and would love the opportunity to meet with you, Lillian, and any other community members that would like to discuss this further. We want to make sure that at the end of this, everyone fully feels heard and valued and that we dealt with this in the most appropriate manner.

 

From the bottom of our hearts we are beyond grieved by this situation and hope that the POC community continues to feel inspired to support us as it always has.

 

http://kutv.com/news/nation-world/portland-bakery-fires-employees-for-refusing-to-serve-black-woman-after-closing

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4 minutes ago, NJL said:

What the ###### is wrong with this world. The store is closed!

Boycott the store.  I am all for cracking down on racism, but there was non here.  The official statement the company released sounds like a panicked owner who over reacted and released the statement in hopes to keep bad press away.  Not because of anything logical or by clear thought.

 

Social Justice Winers...bunch of idiots.

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19 minutes ago, satukoro said:

This could turn into a wrongful termination suit for the employees if they're motivated enough. I'd be upset if I was let go for not playing favorites, especially after closing.

I'm all for it, I'm getting tired of companies abusing the 'you can be fired without a notated reason' type of ######.

If the store was past closing time then they were in the right to refuse a new order; finishing orders that were already placed prior to the closing time is a different matter entirely.

This lady was using the fact that she's black to attack them and the business on the basis of (racial equality); had the person been white there would have been no story and the individual probably would have gotten the cops called on them instead...

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27 minutes ago, techbeck said:

Companies are to afraid to actually use common sense anymore.  A person can no bitch about something, claim racism, and get companies to cave.  SJW, bunch of internet cowards/idiots, can now bitch enough to get their way.  Regardless if it is right or wrong.    And if I was one of those employees, I would def sue the company.  Not much of a case since the company publically stated that they did nothing wrong and caved to the pressure of the idiot Lillian. 

  

Here is the while pathetic memo that the company released.... 


 

http://kutv.com/news/nation-world/portland-bakery-fires-employees-for-refusing-to-serve-black-woman-after-closing

"Admittedly we have had issues with staff trying to enforce our closing hours too firmly without being sensitive to the fact that that person came out of their way to support our business. Whatever their reason for denying you service is not acceptable and flies directly in the face of the experience we aim to provide our customers."

The employees, probably: "We were f***ing closed!"

 

In all fairness though, I can see this issue from both sides. While I love how one of my local late-night burger joints will sometimes stay open until like 4am because they have a policy where they will continue to serve everyone until there is no line, I would not appreciate that as an employee. I've been that dish washer that had to wait to leave an extra hour after closing because a table wouldn't leave.

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1 hour ago, satukoro said:

"Admittedly we have had issues with staff trying to enforce our closing hours too firmly without being sensitive to the fact that that person came out of their way to support our business. Whatever their reason for denying you service is not acceptable and flies directly in the face of the experience we aim to provide our customers."

The employees, probably: "We were f***ing closed!"

 

In all fairness though, I can see this issue from both sides. While I love how one of my local late-night burger joints will sometimes stay open until like 4am because they have a policy where they will continue to serve everyone until there is no line, I would not appreciate that as an employee. I've been that dish washer that had to wait to leave an extra hour after closing because a table wouldn't leave.

my problem is as soon as you start being lax on the closure hours you get people like 'Lillian' who just abuse it for the sake of it.

Hours of operation are there for a reason, employees want to get home to see their families too. 

 

by the time closure happens orders that are in are being finished up and the workspaces are being cleaned so new orders CANT be started without dirtying areas again which would further delay employees being able to go home.

 

just a couple possible issues with being lax on closing time

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I remember working retail at TJ Maxx - we'd have people still wandering the aisles half an hour after the store closed, with no apparent interest in actually buying anything! Meanwhile the lights had been dimmed and us employees were running around cleaning up around these a**hats.

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2 hours ago, satukoro said:

This could turn into a wrongful termination suit for the employees if they're motivated enough. I'd be upset if I was let go for not playing favorites, especially after closing.

Perhaps not, depends on the circumstances.

 

Oregon follows the “at will” employment doctrine. “[T]he general rule is that an employer may discharge an employee at any time and for any reason, absent a contractual, statutory, or constitutional requirement to the contrary.”   Source

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2 hours ago, NJL said:

What the ###### is wrong with this world. The store is closed!

Isn't it a shame we have come to something so obviously stupid as this?

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17 hours ago, Raze said:

Perhaps not, depends on the circumstances.

 

Oregon follows the “at will” employment doctrine. “[T]he general rule is that an employer may discharge an employee at any time and for any reason, absent a contractual, statutory, or constitutional requirement to the contrary.”   Source

I really wish the 'at will' termination policy would just go away; it's been proven to cause more harm than good in most cases due to businesses abusing its ability...

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All I'm seeing here is a store owner terrified of a racism suit, so just punishes his staff without even bothering to check.

 

It seems that in today's world, all it takes is an accusation to screw you over, all because people are scared to death of being branded as racists.  It's pathetic.

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And then there are some of us who'd probably like to chime in one way or another but can't, for the same reasons the above could and likely WILL have on future endeavours (whether those reasons are completely unfounded or otherwise) ... many of us must maintain "professionalism" and "standards of conduct" no matter whatOR ELSE

 

/me eyeballs the mole-hills scattered about the Neowin yard ... 

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On 6/5/2018 at 2:48 AM, NJL said:

What the ###### is wrong with this world. The store is closed!

Leftism a cure must be found

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41 minutes ago, Son_Of_Dad said:

Leftism a cure must be found

People on the right are just as quick to cry when they feel slighted.  Nothing wrong with having left-facing views.  What is wrong is when they are used out of context to justify self-entitlement by the supposed "victim" and then used in an utterly cowardly way by the manager/owner.

This is why we have contracts - so people don't just get fired "because it hurt someones feelings".

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3 hours ago, FloatingFatMan said:

All I'm seeing here is a store owner terrified of a racism suit, so just punishes his staff without even bothering to check.

 

It seems that in today's world, all it takes is an accusation to screw you over, all because people are scared to death of being branded as racists.  It's pathetic.

Just skimming through the quoted part of the article. Blablabla, "denying a black woman service after closing hours". I mean, it doesn't say the employee didn't deny service to white people after closing hours. It could also have said "denying a woman service" or better yet "denying a person/potential customer". But if something gets public enough, you know there'll be some news site or activist group bringing race or gender in the discussion even if it has nothing to do with it (just as there'll be someone making it about a party or a political orientation, thank you guys for reminding us that), so I guess the store owner's fear is unfortunately justified.

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Suck it up people, SJWs also give us politically correct movie reboots :) Oh and SJWs were fed up of corrupt politicians too so instead they gave someone with no clue leadership, you (or the majority, I should say) asked for this.

 

BTW other people bleating in here without even reading the article, the employees also denied service to two white women minutes before they also denied service to "Leslie" (because they were closed for business), but the headline here is the race card of course.

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11 minutes ago, NJL said:

People on the right are just as quick to cry when they feel slighted.

You've located the article saying a conservative voter was refused service at a closed store however the store was full of "progressives"?

Oh wait haven't venue's displaying Trump supporters not welcome signs been noted. Yeah that's the same thing  /s

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5 minutes ago, Son_Of_Dad said:

You've located the article saying a conservative voter was refused service at a closed store however the store was full of "progressives"?

Oh wait haven't venue's displaying Trump supporters not welcome signs been noted. Yeah that's the same thing  /s

Well if you want to make it a political party issue then go right ahead - it fits your style here.  I see it as a "people are so damned entitled and scared of common sense issue".

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