Taco Bell is facing backlash after a video showing a worker being fired for wearing a Black Lives Matter mask went viral.
Denzel Skinner went live on Facebook on June 8, telling viewers that he was losing his job at a Taco Bell location on Belmont Ave. in Youngstown, Ohio, because he was wearing a Black Lives Matter mask.
Skinner told WBKN First News that he had been a shift leader at the location for eight years, and said that the store’s air conditioning had broken — which meant the surgical masks provided to employees made it harder to breathe when it was warm.
He said that he decided to switch to the Black Lives Matter mask because it was easier to breathe through. When a manager asked him to take it off, he told WBKN First News, he refused and walked out of the restaurant. He said that he was told if he walked out, he would lose his job. In the Facebook live video, a female voice, allegedly belonging to the manager, can be heard saying, “You can’t bring politics into the building.”
“Bro, I’m not bringing politics in,” Skinner says in the video. “This is what I’m standing for. How is this considered politics?”
In a statement to Insider, Taco Bell said the chain was “disappointed to learn about the incident,” saying that “we believe Black Lives Matter.” The chain said it is working closely with the franchisee who operates the Youngstown, Ohio, location to address the issue.
“Our Chief People Officer and Yum!’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer spoke with Denzel last week to apologize and discuss the situation,” a Taco Bell representative said in a statement. “Our goal is to ensure our policies are inclusive and keep our team members and customers safe.”
“While our policies at restaurants do not prohibit Team Members from wearing Black Lives Matter masks, we are working to clarify our mask policy so this doesn’t happen again,” the statement continued.
Skinner did not respond to Insider’s request for comment on the incident.
Taco Bell posted a statement to its Twitter page on Thursday evening, saying that it believed the Black Lives Matter movement “is a human rights issue and not a political one.
Companies’ responses to Black Lives Matter masks have sparked backlash
After the death of George Floyd, Taco Bell’s CEO Mark King released an open letter, saying he and the chain were committed to long-term solutions to fight racism.
“I’m a white male,” King wrote. “I grew up in the Midwest and now live in Southern California, where the Black population is a small percentage of the community. I will not pretend to understand the weight of the years of injustice and inequality that our Black friends and colleagues have experienced.”
In the letter, King announced that Taco Bell’s corporate office held a panel on combatting systematic racism led by the company’s chief diversity and inclusion officer. King said that Taco Bell’s restaurant workers will have the opportunity to do the same.
Last week, Starbucks reversed its policy to allow employees to wear pins or t-shirts that support Black Lives Matter, after facing backlash over its previous policy banning such merchandise. Wawa similarly reversed its policy, allowing workers to wear Black Lives Matter pins after originally banning employees from wearing masks or anything else with Black Lives Matter written on it.
Other companies that have faced backlash on Black Lives Matter masks have yet to announce new policies.
One Publix worker quit due to the company’s policy banning all “non-Publix messaging” — including writing Black Lives Matter — on masks, The Tampa Bay Times reports. The Concord Monitor reports that two Whole Foods workers were sent home from work for wearing Black Lives Matter masks.
After Skinner’s video crossed over to Twitter, #RIPTacoBell started trending in the United States
In the morning of June 18, Elijah Daniel, a social media personality and music artist, reposted a cut of Denzel Skinner’s video that was originally uploaded to Twitter by @tyrone_brother. Shortly before reposting the video, he quoted the statement that Taco Bell had posted on Twitter on June 2, saying “nahhhhhh sorry we sad about it but y’all goin too” and using the #RIPTacoBell hashtag.
Daniel told Insider that since he started urging people to use the hashtag #BLUEFALL to document instances of police brutality amid ongoing protests, people have been sending him videos to signal boost (he has over 715,000 followers on Twitter).
Daniel has a history with Taco Bell itself — he has a Taco Bell tattoo and said that he’s been involved with the company for over eight years — but said that when someone sent him the video he posted it because “f-ck Taco Bell, you can’t claim to be the millennial brand and then just not be on the right part of this.”
Since Daniel reposted the video and started the #RIPTacoBell hashtag, people have been flooding it with support for Denzel Skinner while also dunking on Taco Bell’s food and posting recipes to recreate classics. One TikTok showing people how to make a Crunchwrap Supreme has amassed hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter.
Daniel told Insider that his extremely active fan base helped to get the #RIPTacoBell hashtag off of the ground. “I’ll put something out there and they’re like, alright, we’re trending this right now,” he said. “We don’t stand for this. Everybody has very similar beliefs, or we’re accepting of each others’ beliefs because they’re not radical, I think.”
When asked about Taco Bell’s statement and apology to Skinner, Daniel said, Taco Bell “posted two weeks ago that they were ‘going mute for a week’ to make changes, sort of the opposite of what any brand should be doing, and still have yet to do anything publicly. Whether they’re doing things privately, that’s fine, but this isn’t a time to be private. It’s great that they apologized, but what is being done about his firing? The manager?”
Daniel thinks that the incident is a testament to the power of social media, pointing to the amount of time it took for Skinner’s video to truly surface online as well as how social media criticism has led to outcomes like Aunt Jemima changing its name and losing its mascot.
“This was a Black man pleading for people to share this video and get him help because this was a place that was hiding what they were doing,” he said. “I think the main point is to keep spreading it.”
I consider BLM, a Terrorist Organization, because of what they have been doing all over the Country. I am SORRY that Taco Bell relented, and gave this man his job back ! Is ANYONE listening to what well known BLACK people are saying about this ORG ? People like Alveda King, niece of MLK, or the son of Muhammad Ali ?
BLM = BUTTHOLE LICKING MOTHERFUCKERS
ANTIFA = ANOTHER NIGGER TOTAL IDIOT FUCKING ASSHOLE
Then workers can wear Trump t shirts and hat then correct
Their tacos are dogshit anyway !!!!!!!!
So if I wore a screw Pelosi, It would be Ok with this employee because it is not a political thing but a sexual preference thing
I Prefer and love Taco Bell. When I purchase a food product, I don’t expect or want to see anything politically on the Left or Right. No Maga Hats, Flags, etc. nothing Democratic nothing BLM, like masks, signs. BLM has nothing to do with black lives (we see nothing from them on the dozens of shootings daily in Chicago and other major cities) nothing Political. That is the fastest way to push me to Taco Time!
Welp I was actually gonna go that garbage until I seen they apologized. They should apologize for using the lowest grade of meat for human consumption. FACT!
According to the article, the individual decided on his own to wear a different mask than one provided by the company. He should have discussed his thoughts with the TACO Bell management team BEFORE putting on a different mask, in other words, he made the choice prior to talking with his bosses. He was wrong and should be fired. Now, if the company mask was too hot, perhaps they could have provided another that would have been more helpful (a good company would have tried to help it’s employees to overcome the heat. Plus, the individual walked out, knowing he would be fired, and he was. Therefore, the individual should apologize to TACO Bell, for the way he acted.
BLM should be supporting TACO BELL, instead of forcing them to rehire someone they fired for cause. What gives them the right to dictate how they operate.
What can I say but…..everyone should NEVER eat at Taco Butt again. BLM and ANTIFA want us all to bow to them, and they just want power. If they want power, let them buy a AA battery.
Then someone else could wear a MAGA hat, right?
They should not have been wearing the insignia of a terrorist organization. They should have been told to change the masks and then fired if they did not obey. I do not eat at Taco Bell and will not in the future.
Any company that supports terrorist should be boycotted.
I will not be supporting Black Lives Matter or Black Lives Marxist as that is what they are by eating at Taco Bell. I know and like the Taco Bell close to us but forcing me to accept their Marxist ideology is what I feel I would be doing. Ya know what Karl Marx was right? He is alive and well in Black Lives Matter. I cannot have my grand children exposed to them and have them thinking it’s o.k.
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