A trio of California baristas who got the boot after being filmed stopping a Jewish woman from entering a restroom said Monday they were being scapegoated — and the coffee shop’s owner noticed antisemitic graffiti in the bathroom for months.
Three employees at Farley’s East in Oakland reiterated their support for the Palestinian cause in their emailed statement while insisting they oppose antisemitism and did not deny the woman access to the restroom because she is Jewish.
“We condemn the genocide committed against the people of Gaza, and we oppose the displacement and continued oppression of the West Bank by the Israeli government,” their statement said.
“We stand against racism and antisemitism in all its forms.”
The former employees blamed their firing on the “reluctance and unwillingness of both Farley’s East owners to protect their longtime staff after a ring-wing doxxing campaign targeted our co-workers with violence and hate.”
A now-viral video taken on December 3 shows three gleeful workers denying the woman access to the restroom, telling her to “Free Palestine” and accusing her of wanting to use the facility because “Israel likes to take private property and say it’s theirs.”
Three Farley’s East employees were fired after they were filmed preventing a Jewish woman from entering the store’s bathroom. Google Maps An employee told the woman, “I know Israel likes to take private property and say it’s theirs” in a video that has now gone viral. StopAntisemitism/X Three workers stopped the woman, who was looking to record graffiti inside. Stop Antisemitism/X
Before the video was taken down, customers complained about graffiti in it that read “Zionism = fascism,” which the video shows former staff members proudly defending. Staff now say one of the store’s owners, Chris Hillyard, has known about the infamous graffiti for two months.
The staff added that no one knew who wrote the graffiti in the first place, but the owner chose to leave it alone.
The barista complained that customers began “filming staff and other customers without their consent” before she was offered another toilet instead of a graffiti-infested room.
“Your neutrality/indifference enables genocide” was written on the nappy changing station in the cafe. StopAntisemitism/X “Zionism = fascism” written on the bathroom mirror. Stop Antisemitism/X
“When it became clear that he was not going to leave until he was allowed into a certain toilet with graffiti, the staff let him in. The customer did not use the restroom, but instead recorded the streak on his phone and then left immediately,” the employee’s statement said.
The next day, a different set of staff was asked by another customer if the graffiti would be cleaned, prompting the manager to ask the owner to remove the graffiti to “stop further harassment of the staff,” the barista said.
“It was only when Farley’s was spammed with one-star reviews that Chris Hillyard began gathering information about the two incidents,” the staffer claimed, adding that no action was taken until after the videos went viral.
Former employees released a statement saying they were against antisemitism. Instagram/@formerfarleyseastunited
In addition to accusing the owners of knowing about the graffiti all along, the former employee said they failed to support staff during “aggressive harassment and doxxing.”
The cafe’s owners Amy and Chris Hillyard posted on social media Sunday that the behavior of employees seen on video scolding customers was “shocking and unacceptable” and that they had been fired for their actions.
Former staff members have criticized the owner’s response, saying it “allowed the harassment of staff in the video and put the blame entirely on a member of staff, despite the fact that Chris Hillyard knew about the graffiti for months and took no action.”
Three additional staff members have resigned as a result of the treatment of their colleagues, the statement claimed.
Former staff criticized Farley’s East for their response posted on social media.
One of the staff members who quit, former manager Adan Ortega, said he could no longer work at Farley’s because the Hillyards were “more concerned about protecting themselves than the staff.
“At every opportunity they get to help clean up this mess, they choose not to put their staff first and only think about themselves,” Ortega claimed.
The ex-employee also slammed the apology offered by Hillyards, saying it suggested that the allegations of antisemitism were true and would only invite further harassment of the sacked employee.
“It’s all just damage control … and now they’re left to deal with all the disruption, apologizing from people who don’t know the full story,” Ortega said. “[The involved former workers’] faces are online, their family information is out there, and ultimately, it’s going to affect them when they’re looking for a new job.”
The Hillyards did not respond to a Post request for comment Monday about the allegations leveled by the former employee.
Former employees created Instagram to share their statements about the incident. Instagram/@formerfarleyseastunited
Video of the incident garnered more than 2.6 million views when it was posted Tuesday by StopAntisemitism.
Before the three employees were fired, Farley’s issued an apology on Thursday after sparking outrage from a video that went viral.
“Staff handled the situation poorly and we apologize for this error and the distress caused to customers. We have taken corrective action with our staff and removed the offending graffiti,” the coffee shop said in its initial apology.
“We are committed to ongoing staff training for a safe and welcoming environment. Thank you for understanding that we are a small business doing our best to operate a community business in a difficult environment.”
-Additional reporting by Ronny Reyes
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
