Deianeira Ford was taking her two young children to the Dairy Queen in Zion, IL as a treat when her nice afternoon turned into a bigoted nightmare. Ford’s order was messed up and when the owner refused to fix it, she asked for her money back. That’s when the owner, James Crichton, became irate. He gave her the money back but began spewing racial hatred at the young mother and her children.
“He called me and my children n***; he said I can go back to where I came from,” Ford told The Washington Post in an interview.
“He took out his flip phone and he said he would take a picture and put it on Facebook because he wants to show the world what kind of n***s he has to deal with. Then he shut the window and walked away.”
It’s the kind of story that seems to be surfacing more and more as of late, and one in which (often) no justice is ever seen. But in this case, protesting and social media made a difference.
Ford was shaken up and devastated, especially when her three year old daughter asked about the slurs. She called the police. An officer arrived but there was little he could do. It’s (unfortunately) not illegal to be a hateful, horrible human being. He talked to Crichton and said in his report that Crichton didn’t deny anything.
“During the course of my conversation with Crichton, he used the word ‘n***‘ freely to describe black people,” the officer said.
So Ford sprung into action. She went on Facebook, wrote a post about her horrible experience, and called the corporate Dairy Queen office. Quickly, the post gained traction — leading to protests and calls about the Dairy Queen in question. And on Friday, Dairy Queen issued a statement revoking the franchise from Crichton and shutting it down for good.
In a statement Thursday, Dairy Queen called the incident, “inexcusable, reprehensible and unacceptable. We do not in any way condone his behavior or language.”
It’s satisfying to watch the villain get his comeuppance but it still doesn’t change the pain Ford went through or the continual explanations and talks she has to have now with her three year old daughter. Her daughter continually asks her mother why Crichton called her bad names.
“I [told her] some people are just mean,” Ford told the Washington Post. “Some people don’t have good hearts.”
And as we enter into uncertain and frightening times as a country, a time when (ostensibly) racist votes were triumphant in our national election, it’s easy to see this as one more example of how our president elect is fueling and empowering racists to feel emboldened to do and say whatever they want. After all as Crichton proudly told the police, “he would be happy to go to jail over the issue and proudly admitted to calling Ford a n***. Then he added disgustingly that he is ‘fed up with black people.’ ” And that kind of open anger and lack of shame is frightening. Crichton genuinely seemed to think there would be no consequences to his horrific words. And why would he? He had gotten away with it in the past.
Luckily, this time he was wrong, and Dairy Queen did the right thing by shutting his doors. But as we move forward, we must remember that incidents like these are happening quietly all over the country without retribution. And that’s a very disturbing reality that we need to fight against. Kudos to Dairy Queen for not allowing it this time.
