Black customer responds after Tennessee waitress fired over racist Snapchat

'I don’t have any ill will toward her – if that were the case, I’d be no better than her'

A portion of Chelsea Mayes’ Facebook post (Twitter)

On Sunday, Chelsea Mayes and a few friends visited a Cheddar’s restaurant in Tennessee.

The waitress who served their group that day seemed like she did a decent job, Mayes said.

“She was fine,” Mayes told The Washington Post in a phone interview Wednesday night. “She was really sweet. She did her job well, I will say that.”

Later, though, Mayes was contacted by a friend, asking if she had seen a picture.

The image was a Snapchat photo and caption, which contained a racial slur. It was a photo of the server, with the words: “I’m so hung over and have a section full of n****** right now.”

“It’s just shocking, when you think you’ve made a connection with somebody,” Mayes said. “Especially the way times are right now, and there’s so much hate going on.”

The picture left Mayes — who said she believed it was directed at her group, because of the Snapchat timecode — with questions and concerns.

“It kind of just confused me,” Mayes said. “If she felt this way the whole time, she could have easily done something to our food, done something to our drinks, and we never would have known.”

Mayes eventually posted about the image on Facebook; a screenshot of her social media post was obtained by the Daily News Journal.

In the Facebook post, Mayes wrote that she recalled pleasant interactions with the server. Mayes and her friends, who went to the restaurant after church, left a good tip, she wrote.

“This ‘n*****‘ is pretty nice,” she wrote. “This ‘n*****‘ actually enjoyed your company.”

She continued: “This ‘n*****‘ is praying for you. This ‘n*****‘ loves you and there’s nothing you can do about it!”

The waitress has been fired, according to reports.

“We, ourselves, were shocked and offended after learning one of our servers had posted comments on social media that were hurtful and derogatory,” Lee Greer, president of Mint Julep Restaurant Management Group Inc. and owner-operator of Cheddar’s Murfreesboro told the Daily News Journal in a statement. “This type of behavior will never be tolerated in our restaurants. The server was immediately suspended and ultimately terminated after our internal investigation.”

The newspaper reported:

Mayes admits she is glad the server lost her job over the post.

“If there’s no repercussion for these actions, it’s as though they’re saying it’s okay for these actions to happen again,” she said. “I don’t have any ill will toward her. If that were the case, I’d be no better than her.”

In fact, Mayes said, she would like to invite the server to their Sunday school class and “give her a different outlook.”

Mayes said she didn’t think she’d return to Cheddar’s, saying the “comfortableness” she once felt there was lost.

“It is my favorite restaurant and to be honest, I don’t see myself going back,” she said.

The incident comes the same month that a waitress in Colorado lost her job after an offensive tweet.

“I really can honestly say, I don’t have any ill will towards her,” Mayes said. “All I can do is pray for her and hope that this opens her eyes in some way.”

© Washington Post