Are people becoming ruder and more racist, or are ever-present cell phones just helping to provide more conspicuous evidence of bad behavior?
Either way, the latest in a long line of “racist rants caught on video” features an angry couponer at a Jack in the Box fast-food restaurant in Houston, Texas. More specifically, it was the father of a customer whose coupon appeared to be causing problems.
A woman at the restaurant captured the incident Saturday, and posted a 36-second video on her Facebook page under the heading “Omg! Never thought I’d experience Racism so close” (click on the video above to see it for yourself).
In the video, a man is seen arguing with a cashier and manager after his son was having a difficult time redeeming a coupon. The coupon was for a free hamburger, and the employees were apparently taking a little too long for the man’s liking, to verify whether the offer was legit.
The video begins with the man telling the cashier to “buy a bus ticket back to wherever you came from”.
When the manager tries to intervene, the man tries to explain the problem. “She told my son ‘no’,” he says. “She lied her a** off. She thought she could get away with it.”
As the manager tries to calm the situation, the man tells the cashier “you’re going to get fired”, then demands to know her name. “Bye Maria,” he says as he walks away. “Buy you a ticket back to Mexico.”
The woman recording the video is heard remarking “I could say something, but…” just before the video cuts off.
“I’m Hispanic, so that was very offensive,” she later told Houston’s KTRK-TV. “That was uncalled for.”
This incident is just the latest on a growing list of “racist rants caught on video”. The most notorious in recent weeks involved that New York attorney who was seen threatening to call immigration enforcement officials on restaurant employees and customers who were speaking Spanish.
That particular incident didn’t involve a coupon. But coupons were involved in a rant recorded at a Sears store in New Jersey last year. In that video, a woman grew frustrated while waiting in line behind a customer who was using multiple coupons. “You’ve got an Indian waiting on an Indian, that’s what it is,” she says. “Send them back to their own f***ing country,” she complains, while another man in line adds, “Let’s drain the swamp – hurry up!”
Jack in the Box has not yet responded to a request for comment about the Houston incident, and whether the coupon that sparked the argument was even valid. The restaurant chain was offering a buy-one-get-one-free coupon that was valid yesterday only for “National Burger Day”, but it’s unclear whether that was the offer the man’s son was trying to redeem, a couple of days early.
Regardless, the man in this viral video ended up leaving the restaurant without any burgers at all. But it appears he’s earned something that will last even longer than a free meal – internet infamy.
