A 19-year-old Red Lobster waitress was suspended with pay after she posted a customer’s receipt on her Facebook page.
Toni Christina Jenkins said she was in the middle of her shift at a Nashville, Tennessee Red Lobster when she began serving two “extremely rude” customers. She said the customers ordered $45 worth of take out food, but they did not leave a tip.
Jenkins, who is in nursing school, told Mail Online she picked up the receipt and saw the words “none” and “nigger” scrawled on it.
So she did what any other attention-seeker would do: she posted the receipt on her Facebook page.
“This is what I got as a tip last night…so happy to live in the proud southern states..God Bless America, land of the free and home of the low class racists of Tennessee,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
She continued: “They were extremely rude, but I introduced myself to them and they didn’t respond. When I came to take their order they simply told me they wanted their food and to put everything in a to-go box. I offered them dessert but they told me abruptly that they just wanted the check.”
In her haste to publicly ridicule the customer (whose name was clearly visible on the receipt that she posted online), Jenkins forgot that the receipt is property of Red Lobster.
Jenkins was placed on “suspension with pay” while Red Lobster management determines if she violated policy. She has since deleted the post.
At first, Jenkins’ friends and family were very supportive of her on Facebook. But as more people read the shared post, doubts began to arise.
One man wrote: “As a black man, I simply don’t believe this is real. The word ‘none’ has totally different handwriting from the word ‘Ni**er.’ There’s lots of stories lately of people making false accusations of racism or discrimination for attention. I think you should just admit you did this yourself because you were mad he didn’t tip you… This poor man is innocent and I think you are racist against white people.”
Others pointed out that the ‘e’ is different in both words.
But Jenkins remained unfazed by the accusations that she wrote the racist epithet herself.
According to Mail Online, Jenkins stands by her story, and she is encouraging her friends and family to continue sharing the post on Facebook.