The 24-year-old man, along with three other black men and a mixed-race woman, was eating at one of the casual chain’s locations in Florence, he explained in an Instagram video posted on Thursday.
Towards the end of your meal, Leonard said in the video that a manager approached the group “with a terrible attitude” to ask if there was a problem. The manager said a white customer had said that Leonard and his group were “verbally abusing him” and “talking trash with him.”
“It was basically a lie,” said Leonard. “They basically kicked us out of Chipotle for that.”
Leonard said the manager told him he would call the police in his group.
“That’s being black in America right now,” Leonard continued. “We don’t even do anything wrong, we go out to eat with his family, we just try to spend some quality time.”
Chipotle suspended the manager while investigating the incident, Chipotle President and CEO Brian Niccol told CNN in a statement on Friday.
“We have a zero tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind,” said Niccol. “I have personally spoken with Darius and am committed to ensuring that appropriate action is taken once the investigation is complete.”
CNN has reached out to Leonard and his team.
When Leonard and his group left the restaurant, the man who made the report laughed at them, he said in his video.
“You can’t even enjoy eating anymore,” said Leonard. “That is the white privilege we are talking about. There is no black (who) can sit there and eat in peace without being racially outlined …
“And you wonder why all the protests and all those things are happening right now. We are tired of this. We are tired of that. And you white people don’t understand what we went through.” . This is very frustrating, very frustrating. And you don’t feel our damn pain. “
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