It happened again: another racist rant against a Latino. This time it was at a Sprint store in Manassas, Virginia, and a Shaun King tweet about the video took off:
It's happened again. White woman calls polite Latino man a spic, threatens him, says she's offended to hear him speak Spanish. America. 2017 pic.twitter.com/NOzW9KEVjm
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) May 21, 2017
As a result of the video, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure issued the following statement on Tuesday morning:
Racism Has No Place At Sprint
By Marcelo Claure, President & CEO, Sprint
This weekend a customer at a dealer store in Manassas, Virginia, insulted another customer by using profane, threatening and ugly language.
A video of the exchange was posted to Twitter and has been viewed by millions. I and thousands of my Sprint colleagues were disgusted by what we saw.
This behavior violates a fundamental Sprint value of treating everyone with respect.
Unfortunately, we’re seeing an increase in hate speech like this across the country. No one deserves to hear this kind of language.
This has got to stop. It’s time to talk. It’s time to learn. It’s time to heal.
That’s why I’m inviting this woman and her husband to meet privately with me so I can better understand what drives comments and behavior like this. I’d like to share my views with her as well.
I also invite the customer she attacked, Juan, to meet with me.
This kind of behavior is not tolerated in any Sprint workplace. We value our diverse customer base and thousands of minority employees. We will confront head-on those who violate the respect that our customers and employees deserve.
We’ve worked hard at Sprint to create and maintain a welcoming, respectful and diverse culture. My 30,000 employees join me in standing up for our core values and not tolerating such inappropriate behavior. We will not compromise our principles by allowing divisive or hateful language to go unchecked in our stores or offices.
As for us? This type of behavior is not some kind of “new thing.” It’s been going on for years, and while we welcome the latest attention to this now, where was everybody a few years back?
