A Subway manager has been fired after allegedly sending a racist text message about a girl who had just applied for a job.
The manager, known only as Monica, said she didn’t want ‘those people’ in her store after being told a young black teenager had dropped a job application off.
The teen, 17-year-old Katelyn Simmons, picked up an application for Subway on Sunday (June 2) and handed it in that same day at the Champion Forest and Cypresswood branch in Texas.
Hoping to get a summer job so she could earn extra money, Katelyn applied for the job on the recommendation of her friends but could never have imagined the manager’s response.
Upon handing her application in, one of the teenager’s friends – who worked in the store – messaged her manager to let her know that a girl had just applied and she would leave it on the desk for her to look at tomorrow.
The senior employee thanked the friend, before asking: ‘How she look?’ At this point, the pal described her as a ‘black girl’ with ‘long dark hair’ and ‘shortish’.
Monica then responded saying:
Oh no thanks. I don’t want those people in our store lol
The teenager’s mum, Timika Simmon, posted the interaction on social media shortly after it happened, demanding that Subway fire the manager.
The post read:
We are typically silent about this stuff but this was pretty blatant and to be sharing this type of hate with other kids who don’t feel the same way is taking it too far.
Shortly after the post went viral, attracting tens of thousands of likes and shares, Subway took ‘immediate’ action and fired the manager.
Katelyn, a junior at Klein High School, said she picked Subway as a potential job because she thought it would be ‘fun and chill,’ but now feels discouraged something like this could happen based purely on the colour of her skin.
In an interview with KPRC-TV, the 17-year-old said:
It really upset me that people living in this day and age and still think like that and think that it’s OK to verbally be out there like that.
I wasn’t raised to be sensitive about those topics, that’s how the world is, we can’t change it, but it cut me differently because it was so direct to me and I was doing something to better my future and it got shot down by something so vain.
It hurts me, because I don’t want people to get that image and get discouraged.
Subway responded to the accusations, and said in a statement provided to KPRC-TV:
The manager of this location was immediately terminated for her actions. The Franchise Owner has reached out to the young woman who applied for the position to apologise and encourage her to consider re-applying.
The former manager’s actions do not reflect the openness and values shown by Subway Franchise Owners and their staffs.
The Subway brand and its independent Franchise Owners are inclusive and welcome all individuals to be part of the Subway restaurant teams.
The teenager plans on studying at Oklahoma University and says she doesn’t want people’s skin colour to deter them from applying anywhere they want to.
She has no plans to re-apply for Subway.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).