Sanford is the same Orlando, Fla, suburb where black teen Trayvon Martin was murdered by admitted shooter and neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman that soon mushroomed into a national racial scandal.
Two white Papa John’s employees were fired after accidentally leaving a racist voicemail on the machine of a black customer who allegedly tipped him poorly. The second employee was terminated after his voice was clearly heard on the voicemail laughing and enjoying the racist rant
The black customer posted the vulgar voicemail of the employee online. Apparently the Papa John’s employee didn’t realize that he had “butt-dialed” the black customer as he proceeded to leave an N-word laden, racist voicemail, according to the Daily Dot.
“That’s the only requirement for being a n****r,” the employee says. “Yeah, they gave me five bucks there. Fine, outstanding African-American gentleman of the community,” one employee can be heard saying to his co-worker who laughed liberally throughout the voicemail.
He then proceeds to sing a made-up song using mainly the N-word over and over again.
In the video, the customer says his pizza cost $15.26, adding that he gave his customary 21 percent tip. He detailed his shock and disgust in the video’s description:
“This is highly offensive, derogatory, and ignorant. I am appalled that there were no managers or supervisors (the managers and/ supervisors may even be the ones speaking throughout the recording…who knows) from stopping this kind of conversation in the work place. Everybody has a right to their opinions, however, there is a time and place to express them. As an African-American in this community and also someone who has always tipped their Delivery Drivers 21 percent +, I am disgusted entirely by this conversation. Instead of focusing on ‘better ingredients’ and ‘better pizza,’ they should prioritize ‘better integrity’ and ‘better people’ on the top of their ‘to-do list.'”
This is another major embarrassment and PR disaster for Papa John’s chairman and CEO John Schnatter. You might recall that Schattner went on his own rabid rant late last year, promising to raise the price of his pizzas and lay off employees if President Obama was reelected.
But Schattner was extremely contrite in the aftermath of this debacle, offering a mea culpa on Facebook Monday. He said the two employees involved in the “reprehensible” message were immediately fired, as they “defy both my personal and the company’s values.”
“My heartfelt apology goes out to the customer involved, his family, and our community at large,” Schnatter wrote. “I am very sorry that anyone would be exposed to these hurtful and painful words by any person involved in any way with our company. Thank you for your important comments. I have personally reached out to our customer to share my own thoughts and offer my deepest apology.”
This is the second time within the past two weeks Papa John’s has made headlines for major employee mishaps. Earlier this month, Ramon Rodriguez, a Papa John’s deliverman in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, was arrested for selling cocaine stashed in inside the pizza boxes. According to media reports, Rodriguez sold over $40,000 worth of drugs to undercover officers on 19 occasions in 2011.
Now Schattner has to circle the wagons on the Sanford employees situation. Click on continue to listen to the racist voicemail the pizza customer posted. Warning: it contains explicit language including the gratuitous use of the N-word.
