The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 40 - Two People Fired For Not Serving A Black Customer After Closing

00:00:00.000 So I want to talk about a case that's pretty chilling, especially on the heels of the whole

00:00:05.960 Starbucks thing. And you remember, of course, with that, two black people were escorted out

00:00:10.640 of Starbucks in Philadelphia by police after they entered the establishment and sat down at tables

00:00:17.780 and refused to buy anything, even though the manager requested and told them, if you want

00:00:23.600 to stay here, you have to buy something. And she even offered to bring them, to serve them at the

00:00:28.320 table. She was going out of her way to enforce the policy in a very polite way, but they refused 0.96

00:00:36.620 to leave and they refused to buy anything. So she called the police, only thing she could do.

00:00:41.080 And then she was fired for, or at least she was removed from that Starbucks and she was defamed 1.00

00:00:49.920 by the CEO of Starbucks, all for following the policy and following the rules and trying to

00:00:55.880 enforce the rules. And, and I can only pray that she sues Starbucks. I haven't read anything about

00:01:01.420 that manager suing Starbucks, but I hope that she sues them into oblivion because I think she really

00:01:06.380 has quite a case. But on the heels of that episode, we have this story out of Oregon, a pair of employees

00:01:15.220 at Portland's back to Eden bakery were fired after, after refusing to serve a black woman.

00:01:24.520 Okay. That's the, that's the, that's at least the headline that, uh, you know, that's, that's the

00:01:30.860 headline that we're supposed to focus on is that two people refuse to serve a black woman. So clearly 0.99

00:01:35.920 it's racism. Obviously that's the only explanation. I mean, they refuse to serve, but why did they refuse

00:01:42.560 to serve her? Oh, because the store was closed. They refused to serve a black woman after the store 1.00

00:01:49.240 was already closed and they were fired for it. Okay. This, this actually happened. They were fired

00:01:57.680 for the crime of closing the store at closing time. So for a little context, the store closed at nine

00:02:06.660 o'clock at night at nine Oh four, two customers walked in. They happened to be white and they were

00:02:13.780 informed that the store had just closed. And so they were going to be the last customers. This is

00:02:18.180 pretty standard procedure. If you've ever been to a, to a store right at closing time or a minute after

00:02:23.280 closing time, uh, or restaurant or bar or something, you may be told, okay, fine. You're the last one,

00:02:29.340 right? Very often the, the, the first customers to come in right after closing,

00:02:33.980 they will get the honor of being the very last ones. And they'll be told that or, or, uh, think

00:02:40.420 about if you're in a grocery line and the light has just turned off, but you, you slide into the

00:02:46.740 line quickly. And then many times the cashier will say, okay, you're the last one. So they were the last

00:02:52.420 ones. They were given that distinguished honor. And then a couple of minutes after that, another woman, 0.99

00:02:58.920 woman walks in, she happens to be black and her name is Lillian green. She's informed that the 0.99

00:03:05.360 women in front of her are the last ones in the stores closed. So what does she do? She proceeds 1.00

00:03:10.520 to take out her phone and start filming and she starts filming and she accuses a store of racism

00:03:16.880 for refusing to serve her after the store had already closed. This apparently is the first time

00:03:22.740 she'd ever encountered the concept of a closed establishment. She had never Lillian green has

00:03:28.860 never heard of stores closing before. She had no idea that that happened. She was shocked by it.

00:03:33.760 She thought that all stores everywhere are open all the time. Um, so she took a video and she was,

00:03:40.420 uh, and it went viral and very quickly the employees were fired. Now the bakery owner,

00:03:47.220 John Blomgren is his name, which just seems like a perfect name for everything going on. I don't

00:03:53.760 know why it just seems like the perfect name. So Blomgren issues a lengthy statement on Facebook,

00:03:59.900 which has since been deleted for some reason. He issues a lengthy statement talking about why,

00:04:06.980 why he fired the employees and, you know, explaining the whole situation. And it's an incredible,

00:04:10.740 it's a truly incredible statement. So Blomgren says that he says himself that the employees who

00:04:19.040 denied service to the black woman who came in after closing, they are not racist. He says that

00:04:23.460 himself. He knows that they're not racist. Um, and he, he knows they didn't have racist intentions.

00:04:28.240 He knows that too. Yet, and I'm quoting here in this situation, it doesn't really matter

00:04:35.020 because Lillian felt like she had been discriminated against. So she felt like she had been

00:04:41.620 discriminated against. So it doesn't really matter what was intended. All that matters is how this

00:04:46.600 woman felt about it. Uh, he goes on to say that sometimes impact outweighs intent. And when that

00:04:53.260 happens, people need to be held accountable. Since both Lillian and the clamoring public were demanding 0.76

00:05:01.120 that these staff members be fired, that is what we did, putting these two women out of work. 1.00

00:05:07.800 It was an incredibly difficult thing for us to do, especially when they felt, uh, they were just

00:05:12.260 upholding our closing time of 9 PM, but the way in which they went about it lacked sensitivity and

00:05:17.500 understanding of the racial implications at work. Oh, oh my gosh. So what do we have here? And then,

00:05:27.480 by the way, Blomgren also, also said, uh, in a statement that, uh, back to Eden bakery is 100%

00:05:34.340 committed to being a welcoming and supportive environment for all customers who share our

00:05:38.820 values of inclusivity and dismantling the white supremacist heteropatriarchy. So it's not going to

00:05:46.440 surprise you to learn that this is a vegan bakery, by the way, uh, you probably won't be surprised to

00:05:51.020 learn that, but that's not the point. The point is that he admits that the employees didn't actually

00:05:59.000 do anything wrong, but all that really matters is how the poor aggrieved Lillian feels about it. 0.96

00:06:07.100 And he even admits that he fired his employees because of the clamoring public. He went, he came

00:06:13.080 out and said, yeah, I got rid of them because of the pitchfork mob. So that's what I did. You know, 1.00

00:06:17.680 what else am I going to do the right thing? Come on. So it matters what the clamoring public wants.

00:06:23.980 According to Blomgren, it matters how Lillian feels. What doesn't matter is what actually happened.

00:06:31.940 That's the only thing that doesn't matter here. According to Blomgren, the only thing that doesn't

00:06:35.540 matter is the reality of the situation. That's what doesn't matter. But the hallucinations and the,

00:06:42.160 the, um, delusions of Lillian green and the clamoring public, that's what matters. So two

00:06:50.240 innocent employees had to lose their livelihood as a sacrificial offering to the aggrieved masses.

00:06:57.300 Now, how does this relate to the situation and the culture generally? Well, because this,

00:07:05.940 whether it's this or the Starbucks thing, and I think you've got a real precedent here with Starbucks

00:07:11.140 and with this, I mean, this is a really dangerous precedent. And it certainly is making me very

00:07:17.460 thankful that I don't work in the customer service industry. And then when you add in all the stuff

00:07:21.700 with the, the, uh, the Christian bakeries and the LGBT mob, that's been targeting them. We'll see what 0.79

00:07:27.200 happens with the Supreme court case that that'll be announced in the next few weeks. Um, but a Supreme

00:07:32.880 court fines against the Christian bakers, then we're really going to be in a position where you just 0.76

00:07:39.300 can't operate as a business owner anymore in America. So this is the inevitable results when

00:07:46.540 people are empowered to interpret something, however, they want to interpret it and then impose

00:07:53.800 that interpretation on everyone else. This is what happens. So look at it this way in any human

00:08:03.540 conversation or interaction. There are basically three things. There are three factors, um, at work

00:08:09.480 here. So number one, in any, anytime, anytime something is said to another person, there's three

00:08:15.760 factors. Number one, there, there is what is actually said. Okay. So that's one fact. What did,

00:08:23.260 what was actually said? The second factor, what was meant? What did the person mean when they said it?

00:08:30.700 Okay. That's the second factor. Third factor. What did the person who was being spoken to?

00:08:37.080 What did they hear? How did they interpret it? Those are the three elements of any human exchange,

00:08:45.580 right? Now things go really smoothly. If all three of those things line up, if the speaker means what he

00:08:52.660 says and says what he means and the hearer hears what is said and understands what is meant, that's how you

00:08:59.560 have a successful human interaction. That's when you can give each other a high five and say, yes,

00:09:04.900 we interacted as human beings in a satisfactory manner because it's such, it's such a rare thing

00:09:10.700 these days that you really have to stop and appreciate it when it happens. But a breakdown occurs

00:09:15.600 when one of those three factors falls out of step with everything else, when there's a disharmony

00:09:21.680 among those three factors. So if what a person says doesn't line up with what they mean,

00:09:29.520 there's going to be a miscommunication. And if what a person hears doesn't line up with what was said

00:09:38.040 or what was meant, then there's a miscommunication. But here's the thing, okay? This is the really

00:09:45.380 important point that I want everyone to, we all need to understand. If I speak clearly and honestly

00:09:54.160 and I use the appropriate language to convey my meaning, and yet you hear something entirely and

00:10:03.400 completely different from what I said or meant, that's on you. That's your fault. That's not my fault.

00:10:11.440 I don't need to apologize for it. I shouldn't get fired for it. I'm not responsible for your

00:10:20.420 misinterpretation in that case. I have done my job. I said what I meant. I said it clearly.

00:10:28.120 And that's all I can do. Now the ball's in your court. I cannot be held accountable for your

00:10:36.640 unwillingness or inability to understand something that was clearly communicated to you. So if I say

00:10:44.040 to you, for instance, oh, I'm sorry, the store is closed for the evening. I can't serve you.

00:10:51.660 That's a clear, if I say that, that's a very clear statement. And any person with at least more than

00:10:58.640 seven or eight brain cells in their head understands what that means. It's a very clear, clearly conveyed

00:11:06.880 idea. So if that's what I say, and that's what I mean, and that statement indeed reflects my

00:11:15.680 intentions and my meaning. And yet you hear, yet what you hear in your head is, we don't serve your

00:11:23.940 kind here. Get out. This is for white people only. If that's how you hear it, when all I said was, 1.00

00:11:32.460 it was, we're closed. And you hear that this is a store for white people that we're segregated.

00:11:41.340 Well, well, that's your fault. That's on you. I shouldn't be punished for it. You're the one who 0.98

00:11:48.800 owes me an apology for wildly misconstruing some very simple statement. You owe me, you should

00:11:55.980 apologize to me. I demand an apology from you in that case because I did my job. You didn't do your

00:12:02.700 job, which was just simply listen to what I said and understand it. So likewise, if I say, oh, these

00:12:10.420 tables are for customers only. I need you to buy something if you're going to sit here, which is

00:12:16.220 what the Starbucks manager said to the two black gentlemen that were at the Philadelphia Starbucks.

00:12:20.740 If I say that and you hear only white people are allowed in Starbucks, yet again, that's on you. 0.99

00:12:29.460 That's your fault. You owe me an apology for misconstruing what I said. I communicated my meaning

00:12:38.100 and intention as clearly as humanly possible, yet you snatched it out of the air and twisted it into

00:12:46.280 the weirdest little pretzel that you could. And then you beat me over the head with it. Now I need

00:12:53.020 the apology. I am the victim in that scenario, not you. You're the bully. My only job in an exchange

00:13:01.820 with you is to convey my meaning clearly and understandably. Your only job is to understand my

00:13:08.640 meaning. If I fail to be clear, you know, if I communicate in a way that's very vague and doesn't

00:13:15.140 make a lot of sense, then your misunderstanding is my fault and I owe you an apology. But if I do my job

00:13:22.040 well and if I do everything I can on my end, then the ball's in your court. And if you mess it up

00:13:27.560 and you bungle it somehow, well, then that's your fault. So Mr. Blomgren says that all that matters

00:13:36.680 is how Lillian Green felt. No, that's precisely the thing that doesn't matter. That's the only thing

00:13:45.460 in that situation that doesn't matter. What matters is what matters in the case of the bakery. Two things

00:13:54.700 matter. Number one, that the store was closed. And number two, that the employees told her that

00:14:00.680 the store was closed. That's literally all that matters. Those two things. That's the only, that's

00:14:05.500 it. Precisely the thing that doesn't matter is how Lillian Green felt. It doesn't matter how you feel 0.82

00:14:11.300 about the fact that the store is closed. It makes no difference whatsoever. That is not, it's not my job

00:14:17.560 to, to somehow protect your feelings in relation to the fact that the store is closed.

00:14:24.920 What am I supposed to do? What were the employees supposed to do? I mean, are we going to, should

00:14:30.320 they, should they take down the number of every racial minority in the greater Portland area and

00:14:36.720 call all of them individually on the phone before closing to ask them if it's okay if they close?

00:14:42.360 Is that what they're supposed, I guess, yes, I guess that's what they're supposed to do

00:14:45.560 at this point. That's, that's, that's what is required now. If I say hello to you and you feel

00:14:54.040 like I just called your mother fat, well, no, I don't owe an apology to your mother because I didn't 0.95

00:15:00.460 say that. Now you can claim that, yeah, you said hello, but what you really meant is that my mother 0.96

00:15:06.720 is fat. Well, you can claim that. And I guess there's a possibility that you're correct. I can't 0.97

00:15:13.000 prove you wrong because you, you can't read my mind and I cannot prove to you what was in my mind,

00:15:18.580 but that is not a reasonable interpretation of the statement. Hello. You see, it's not,

00:15:27.020 it's not reasonable for you to assume it. Yes. In a, in a, there is a world in which possibly,

00:15:32.160 I mean, someone could say hello and they really mean it as an insult against your mother, I guess,

00:15:37.240 but all we can do is reasonably interpret the behaviors and statements of those around us.

00:15:46.660 That's all we can do. This is not a reasonable interpretation. So I don't owe an apology.

00:15:52.640 If I, if I tell you that it's raining outside and you feel like what I really said was it's stunning,

00:15:59.920 it's sunny out. Or if I say it's raining outside, but you feel like my intention was to tell you that

00:16:05.780 it's sunny. And so you walk outside without a jacket on or without, without an umbrella and you

00:16:11.400 get drenched. The fact that you're drenched is not my fault. It's your fault. I told you again,

00:16:18.240 I did my job. This has become, I mean, this, this is maybe the number one problem with, um,

00:16:27.980 with the way with our communication in this country. It's, it's, it's the number one source of

00:16:35.120 all the miscommunication is that people think they have the right to just, to, to essentially

00:16:44.660 tell you what you meant by what you said or did. That's what they, you say something, someone hears

00:16:53.760 it. And that person thinks they have the right to tell you what you meant. And if you try to clarify

00:17:03.000 and say, no, this is what I really meant, it doesn't matter. They'll accuse you of meaning

00:17:08.860 something and it doesn't matter. You could try to clarify it all you want. And they're saying,

00:17:12.820 no, it doesn't matter. How do you know what you meant? I know what you meant. You don't know what

00:17:16.920 you meant. Who, who, who's going to be the authority here on what you were thinking? Me or you? Well,

00:17:21.980 obviously me. No, what matters is what is said. And yes, the intention behind it, but you cannot impose

00:17:33.300 or imbue a statement with, with, with unreasonable intentions or intentions that are completely

00:17:40.960 disconnected entirely from what was actually communicated. So now let's, let's very quickly,

00:17:49.320 you know, an example on the other end of the spectrum. Okay. Um, an example on the other end

00:17:53.840 of the spectrum, let's take the Roseanne situation from a couple of days ago. So she tells a joke on 0.99

00:17:59.360 Twitter saying that a black woman is a black woman who was born in Iran is the love child of the Muslim 0.99

00:18:05.680 brotherhood and planet of the apes. Okay. Now later she claims that she didn't mean that to be racist, 0.99

00:18:10.820 racist. But in that case, it is very reasonable for people to interpret a comment like that as

00:18:20.440 racist. That in fact is the most reasonable interpretation of what was said. So in that

00:18:27.180 case, even when she comes back after the fact and says, oh yeah, I said something blatantly racist,

00:18:32.280 but I didn't mean it in a racist way. Well, no, that, that doesn't work because now you're being

00:18:37.860 the unreasonable. In that case, you said something very clear. Your statement was very clear. You

00:18:44.400 said a black woman is the love child of planet of the apes. That's a clear statement. And the 1.00

00:18:47.920 meaning is very clear. And now you're trying to backtrack later and you yourself are trying to

00:18:53.960 imbue that statement with a, with a meaning, uh, or, or an interpretation that is completely

00:18:59.600 disconnected from what was actually said. So yeah, you can't do that either. So like, if I say to you,

00:19:05.980 your mother is fat and then later I say, no, no, no, I just meant to say hello. Well, no, 0.97

00:19:10.740 I can't do that because that's not what I said. If I wanted to say hello, I should have just said

00:19:13.980 hello. Roseanne was trying to claim that she's just trying to say that, uh, Valerie Jarrett was ugly 1.00

00:19:19.580 or something like that. She was trying to make a comment about her looks, which I mean, is still not 0.58

00:19:23.960 a nice thing to do, but that's not what she said. She could have said Valerie Jarrett looks funny. 0.92

00:19:28.700 She's, she's ugly. Um, still not a necessary thing to say, but she could have said that she didn't. 1.00

00:19:33.280 She said very specifically, she's from planet of the apes. So that's, you know, it's racist.

00:19:39.100 So we all have a responsibility in this, in this regard to say what we mean and to use language that

00:19:45.320 clearly conveys our meaning. And as long as we have done that, then we're in the clear and however

00:19:53.980 people misinterpret it or whatever they do with it, they take it, they put it in a blender. They,

00:19:59.040 they turn, you know, they, they slice it apart. They do whatever, you know, they make a Frankenstein

00:20:04.980 monster out of your statement. That's all on them. Or at least it should be. All right. I think,

00:20:11.260 I hope I conveyed my meaning clearly enough. Thanks for watching everybody. Thanks for listening.

00:20:15.120 Godspeed.

The Matt Walsh Show - May 31, 2018

Ep. 40 - Two People Fired For Not Serving A Black Customer After Closing

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