The owner of a San Francisco coffee shop fired her husband for repeating the n-word during a confrontation with a black man.
Eileen Rinaldi, the owner of Ritual Coffee Roasters, fired her husband John Rinaldi from a freelance construction job at the coffee shop on Tuesday after he used a racial slur at a black customer during a verbal altercation in the parking lot back in May. She called her husband’s language “racist, harmful and dehumanizing” in a Tuesday Instagram post.
“Words have power–and the word he repeated is undoubtedly racist and harmful. To me, it means hate and dehumanization. I am thinking about and gutted by the unimaginable pain, anger, and trauma this word has caused throughout history and in every moment a white person uses it,” Rinaldi wrote.
She wrote that her husband admitted to making a”horrible mistake” of repeating the word and regrets hiring John to oversee the construction work. (RELATED: Professor Fired For Reading Passage Containing Racial Slur From Mark Twain Novel That ‘Satirizes Evil Institution Of Slavery’)
Ritual Coffee owner fires husband after he uses a racial slur at work https://t.co/63YRlHlPE1
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) June 9, 2021
John apologized for the incident, saying the word should never have been used, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“[He] asked me and I quote: ‘What’s your name, bitch ass n–? To which I, unfortunately replied, ‘Yup, that’s my name. Bitch ass n–,'” he told the Chronicle, recalling the altercation. “This was an unfortunate incident over a parking spot. I have apologized for repeating the derogatory word that was shouted at me. A word I never, ever use.”
Ritual Coffee Roasters employees had reportedly started an email campaign in 2020 to raise awareness of issues pertaining to diversity in the shop. Since then, Eileen has sought to make the business more inclusive, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“I am committed to doing the necessary work of continuously evolving how we are an anti-racist, inclusive, and equitable business and place for our employees, customers, and community,” Eileen wrote in her Instagram post, noting that her husband will no longer be involved with the business in any capacity going forward.
Disney fired actress Gina Carano from “The Mandalorian” after she shared a social media post in February, comparing being a conservative in the U.S. in 2021 to being a Jew during the Holocaust. In July 2020, an ABC News executive was fired for allegedly making comments about “picking cotton” to “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts.