Two Duke baristas were fired after blasting an N-word-heavy rap song at the coffee shop where they worked, the New York Daily News reported.
Britni Brown and Kevin Simmons were let go from their positions at the Duke University's Joe Van Gogh coffee house Monday, after Vice President of Student Affairs Larry Moneta lodged a complaint about the song, "Get Paid" by Young Dolph, that was playing at Joe Van Gogh, the publication said.
Moneta made a quick stop at the coffee house Friday to order his usual vegan muffin and tea when the lyrically explicit song began playing over the sound system. He reportedly confronted Brown, who was manning the register and in charge of the playlist at the time, and told her the song was inappropriate.
She immediately turned the music off and apologized, offering Moneta his order for free, but he insisted she ring it up.
Simmons was busy making drinks when he noted the exchange.
"Harassing is definitely the word I would use," he said, according to Indy Week. "He was verbally harassing her."
Moneta left Joe Van Gogh but, the owner Robbie Roberts called Brown querying the incident and informing her that Duke's head of dining services, Robert Coffey, had contacted him regarding the offensive lyrics.
Brown said she took full responsibility of the incident but on Monday both she and Simmons were called in to Joe Van Gogh's North Carolina headquarters and presented with the option of resigning with severance or being fired.
Brown, who is an African- American, said it was unfair that Simmons' contract was also terminated.
In audio recordings of the meeting, obtained by Indy Week, she said her employers were trying to "cover it up as to make it not look discriminatory for firing a person of color."
An unidentified manager of the campus Joe Van Gogh said she was initially instructed to terminate just Brown's contract but was later told to terminate Simmons' contract as well, according to Indy Week.
Moneta commented on the ordeal in a statement to the Duke Chronicle, explaining that he found the song's lyrical content "inappropriate for a working environment that serves children among others."
He said that "the employees who chose to play the song in a business establishment on the Duke campus made a poor decision which was conveyed to the JVG management," adding that "how they responded to the employees' behavior was solely at their discretion."
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