Racism exists in Buffalo...but how it's handled is what matters most.

I was at a local restaurant on Main Street in Amherst the other day and a customer yelled out, "NIGGER" ... not necessarily aimed at anyone in particular.  A Hispanic customer came over and confronted the guy but his friends urged him to leave it alone.  The interesting thing regarding this incident is that the waiter heard the customer and continued to take his order (he was with one other guy) and proceeded to work as if nothing had happened.

I'm sharing this story with you because I'm perplexed by this and another somewhat similar incident that took place just yesterday.  A female employee at Guercio and Sons, 250 Grant Street restaurant, happened to be serving a Local Civil Rights Activist with PUSH Buffalo, John Washington II.

The Guercio and Sons employee chose the right individual to discriminate against (being sarcastic) ...John Washington ll was just names 'Buffalonian of The Week' by the karibunews.com for his work with the PUSH organization.

John Washington:

Jana Eisenberg / Karibu News
Jana Eisenberg / Karibu News
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Before you watch the video, I need to say that I've avoided doing any negative posts for some time now, which has been challenging because finding good news is much harder, however I wanted to post this story and attempt to put a positive spin on it.  Understand that neither of these incidents, mine or John Washington Jr's, resulted in any type of confrontation or violence.  John Washington chose to handle his situation by simply going to the media.  I chose to call the Police and they confronted the customer instead of me having to do that. There are alternatives to letting your anger towards racism consume you and have it lead to violence...a better option is exposure.  If you encounter racism, tell someone about immediately or call the Police.  Racism isn't going to go away, but anyone who encounters it can handle it in such a manner that the perpetrator is exposed and gets the short end of the stick.  Be smarter than the person who isn't.

According to News Reports, one of the Owners of the restaurant (Guercio and Sons, 250 Grant Street) said,

"We do not condone, or tolerate the type of behavior exhibited by our former employee, and as soon as we became aware of what had happened, we terminated the employee immediately."

WATCH:

 

 

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