Chipotle evaluating new evidence after firing manager over viral video alleging racism; UPDATE

Greg P. | 7:32 PM on November 18, 2018

Editor’s Note: This post has been updated:

By now you’ve probably seen this viral video from Twitter user @Masudaliii accusing employees of a Minneapolis area Chipotle of racism after the crew members, many of who are white, asked @Masudaliii and his friends, who are black, to prove they had money to pay for their food before they’d prepare it:

Can a group of young well established African American get a bite to eat after a long workout session. @ChipotleTweets ?? pic.twitter.com/Sj8RaeINj6

— Masud Ali ? (@Masudaliii) November 16, 2018

According to Chipotle’s Twitter account, the manager was fired over it:

The manager thought these gentlemen were the same customers from Tuesday night who weren’t able to pay for their meal. Regardless, this is not how we treat our customers. As a result, the manager has been terminated. -Shaq

— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) November 17, 2018

But users quickly pointed out to Chipotle that @Masudaliii has a history of stiffing restaurants on the bill, which he’s bragged about in now-deleted tweets:

This has a couple million views and tens of thousands of retweets, when it’s very, very obvious what’s actually going down. https://t.co/YVCiq6g6m8

— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) November 18, 2018

Yes, I bet the chipotle with the black employee refused to serve black people.

I bet when the employees say “we’ve seen you twice before” and demand payment upfront, it’s definitely not because you’ve robbed them before.

— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) November 18, 2018

Our actions were based on the facts known to us immediately after the incident. We now have additional information which needs to be investigated further. We want to do the right thing, so after further investigation, we’ll re-train and re-hire if the facts warrant it.

— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) November 18, 2018

And hopefully it costs Chipotle a lot of money to make things right with the fired manager, because that’s not how you should treat your employees:

Ask her how many zeros she wants on that check. https://t.co/ECwwJn09Fw

— Carl Gustav (@CaptYonah) November 18, 2018

Update: She reportedly was offered her job back:

Chipotle offers manager job back after firing her because a shoplifter called her racist. But she'd have to be crazy to accept–chipotle KNEW the guy admitted to stealing and aided with online bullies over her anyway. Similarly situated wrongfully terminated mgr got $8M judgment. https://t.co/qtciR441Y1

— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) November 19, 2018

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