(cache) 'Are you here legally?' Employee berates U.S. citizen for trying to make purchase in broken English

Gabe Ortiz

'Are you here legally?' Employee berates U.S. citizen for trying to make purchase in broken English

By Gabe Ortiz

Tuesday Jun 20, 2017 · 11:48 AM PDT

2017/06/20 · 11:48

Screen_Shot_2017-06-20_at_11.44.42_AM.png — "Thanks, come again!"

TAGS

Edit Tags

Tag History

Done Editing Tags

A spokesperson for 7-Eleven has issued a statement after a Florida clerk was caught on video berating a Latino man about his immigration status. According to Fox 13, the store employee flipped his lid when Yasmany Rodriguez, a Cuba-born U.S. citizen who has been here for two years, tried to make a purchase but couldn’t remember the English-language word for “green.” Hey, lots of us have trouble remembering things every now and then, but when Yasmany tried in Spanish, the clerk went into full-on ICE mode.

You better believe this is exactly the kind of gross vitriol the past few months have encouraged and emboldened:

The customer's lawyer, Jorge Lorenzo, tells FOX 13 his client Yasmany Rodriguez Hernandez used the Spanish word for 'green' to ask the clerk for a specific pack of cigarettes. That's when Lorenzo says the clerk demanded Hernandez speak English.

The clerk is heard saying, "Are you here legally? Do you have papers? Do you have papers?"

"The implication that's so ugly. The implication is that it's ok to treat someone like that individual treated him if they don't have papers. That doesn't make them less human," said Lorenzo.

While the company said a statement that the employee’s tirade was “inappropriate and offensive,” Lorenzo said they have not yet apologized to Yasmany, who became a U.S. citizen through the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program. “It is unclear if the clerk in the video remains employed with 7-Eleven,” Fox 13 also notes.

Just a few days ago, some Muslim-American teens recorded another white man going on an Islamophobic rant at a Mexican restaurant, no less. This is something people of color deal with on a constant basis, and with every passing day more proof emerges that our political climate is telling folks who maybe hesitated in the past about doing or saying something despicable, to just go for it.

Comments are closed on this story.