A Whataburger in Texas fired a Black employee after a white customer complained about her wearing a Black Lives Matter face mask.
What We Know:
- The incident occurred August 4 when a white customer went to the Whataburger, which is located in a predominately Black neighborhood in Fort Worth. Ma’Kiya Congious was wearing her mask when the customer complained and asked her for the phone number to corporate. Congious says she interacted with the district manager earlier in the day and it didn’t pose as an issue.
- Congious asked the customer if she did something wrong and the customer replied, saying that she shouldn’t be allowed to wear the mask and that she’d be hearing from corporate. Although the district manager didn’t say anything to her about the mask earlier, Congious says another “high-ranking company official” was also in the restaurant that day and she believes that is why it was a big deal that the customer was going to call corporate to complain. She asked why the mask wasn’t an issue any of the other days she had worn it and the manager said she was “waiting for the right time.”
- To protect herself, Congious recorded part of the conversation with the district manager. On the audio, you can hear the manager saying, “Whataburger wants you to wear a mask that has no opinions whatsoever on them. You’re entitled to your personal opinions and that’s fine. But at Whataburger, we don’t want to portray them because some people may be offended. This is a big business.”
- Congious expressed to her manager that she was called a “n—-r” after she tried to dismiss the importance of BLM. Instead, she told her to put in her two weeks’ notice. The police showed up to the restaurant and spoke with Congious, who was provided with the number to corporate and then left the scene.
Whataburger released a statement regarding the incident. Local protesters flooded the streets after the incident in support of Congious.
