Detroit cafe owners’ son fired for calling customer ‘faggot-ass n****r’
The owner of Vegginini’s Paradise Cafe in Detroit fired their son after the video was posted (tripadvisor)
A Detroit cafe employee who referred to a queer customer as a “faggot-ass n****r” in an Instagram video has been fired despite being the owners’ son.
The staff member at Vegginini’s Paradise Cafe in Detroit, Michigan secretly filmed gay couple Shayne Starr and his boyfriend at their table and uploaded the video—in which he calls one of them “a f**king vampire”—on Friday (January 4), Yahoo Lifestyle has reported.
On Sunday (January 6), the cafe apologised on Facebook for the unnamed employee’s “horrible comments” and confirmed that he had been dismissed.
“We apologise to everyone who was offended by such foul and unprofessional behaviour”
— Vegginini’s Paradise Cafe in Detroit
The post continued: “Yes, he is the son of the owners but that does not excuse him of responsibility nor accountability, and simply being a decent human being.
Watch the Detroit cafe employee’s video here:
“Again we apologise to everyone who was offended by such foul and unprofessional behaviour.”
Shayne Starr reacts to video at Detroit cafe
Starr, a 24-year-old queer makeup artist, wrote on Facebook that he was “hurt” by the video, but not surprised.
“This is daily life for me and many other queer people,” he explained. “The only difference is that this time, this video made its way to me.
“As a queer person, I have seen and gone through much more violent and more disturbing things than this, and that is the unfortunate truth of our reality as a community and as a society.”
Starr said he would be avoiding Vegginini’s from now on, but that he wanted to bring incidents like this to the attention of a wider audience.
“Though it’s needless to say I will not be going back, I’m posting this not for sympathy, or revenge,” he wrote.
Shayne Starr was not surprised by the abuse directed at him in the Instagram video (shayne starr/facebook)
“I’m posting this to open peoples’ eyes to those who are otherwise unaware. This is the reality of someone assigned male at birth, wearing as much makeup as the average woman.
“This is completely unacceptable even removing the fact that I’m visibly queer, removing the fact that it was by one of the employees,” continued Starr.
“It is an invasion of privacy to have a video taken of me without my consent, especially one as malicious as this.”
Shayne Starr wanted to post Detroit video to spread awareness
The makeup artist said that he “thought about not posting this video, and just moving on but I think it’s important to put this out there.
“I don’t tolerate intolerance. I don’t stand for this and I won’t let this slide. The reason I live my life so out loud, so unapologetically is so that the generations after won’t have to even think about doing anything less.
“You may think I’m a little weird for doing so, but I just want to make the world a little kinder, and this is why,” he continued.
“People like us can’t even seem to go to eat at a restaurant (a vegan one no less) and just exist. All I was doing was ordering.
“Hopefully some positivity will come about through this. Everyone deserves to be treated with kindness, and you may not accept me, but I’m no exception.”
