A shocking and offensive new video shows a woman go on a racist rant toward a Black cashier at a Manhattan bakery after she refused to put on a mask while placing an order.
The person who shot the video said the incident took place on Sunday at the Davidovich Bakery stand inside Essex Market on the Lower East Side. The female customer, a mother of five identified a Stephanie Denaro, was repeatedly asked to put on a face covering before ordering.
"I said excuse me, I think you have to put on your mask, you should probably wear your mask," said Vic, the employee who was the target of the racist tirade.
When the woman refused, a security guard can be seen stepping in to tell her she would not be served until she complied.
That's when the women went off on her hate-filled tirade, hurling a racial slur at an employee behind the counter. When other customers called her out for using the derogatory and racist language, she replied that "I can call him whatever I want."
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Vic told NBC New York on Wednesday that she then went off, questioning who he was to ask her that — and then followed up with the racial slurs. It was an upsetting ordeal for the employee.
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"I really felt offended by those words, I had to reflect and think about it and get my calm together with myself," he said.
Video shows the woman eventually get escorted out by security. The man who recorded the incident told NBC New York called the whole ordeal "dark" and "disturbing."
"At first I was just like, it's a crazy person, I'm gonna film them," said Jack Weil. "But then when she started saying the N-word in front of her kids, I was like, this is dark. This is really disturbing ... the whole crowd was starting to yell stuff at her."
On Tuesday, the bakery's vice president put out a statement saying how proud they are of how the workers handled a "very sad situation," saying they shouldn't have to deal with things like that just for simply trying to do their job.
"We are a family-run company and all of our employees whether they have been with us for a day or years, when you attack one member of our family, you attack all of our family. The retail workers have all been on the front line during the pandemic. They try to put a smile on their face. Nothing justifies someone being attacked and insulted and treated the way he was treated," said Marc Fintz in a statement.
"We don’t make mask mandates, we follow the law. The law says we have to follow the rules and we hope our customers understand that they are free to frequent other businesses if they don’t like it. No one should be subjected to racial and harassing slurs like that," the statement continued. "People have reached out from all over the country to commend him on handling it with dignity and grace. He’s just trying to earn a paycheck and navigate these crazy times.”
The NYPD took a police report regarding the incident.
Denaro was home when News 4 paid her a visit, but told us she wasn’t talking to anyone. However, she has been posting on Instagram since the incident in an effort to justify her actions.
In one post writing: "I was just having a bad day. I didn’t want to put a mask on because I have Asthma and Bronchitis. No one understood me so I got mad.”
She also claimed in one post that a DNA test she took in the past showed she was Black. In several other posts, she has called the coronavirus pandemic a hoax and has protested against the state mask mandate.
Vic's message to her is simple: "Love overcomes hatred and whatever she may have felt during that time," he said.
