A customer complained about a Whataburger employee’s BLM mask. Now she’s out of a job.
Ma’Kiya Congious showed up for her shift Tuesday morning at the Brentwood Stair Whataburger wearing a Black Lives Matter mask. It was the same one she had worn on Friday with no issues, she said. But after a customer complained, according to Congious, management condemned her wearing of the mask, leading her to ask about resigning and management to call the police on her.
Congious, 19, was working curbside pickup Tuesday. She had bought the Black Lives Matter mask last week at a shop in Meadowbrook and received compliments from customers on Friday and Tuesday. Even before she started wearing the mask a customer who came nearly every day would tell her, Congious said, “‘You remember Black lives matter and you stay safe.’”
But in the early afternoon Tuesday she said she took an order to a white woman who then asked for the customer service phone number.
“I asked, ‘Is it something I did wrong?’” Congious said. “She said, ‘They should not allow you to wear that mask ... don’t worry about it you’ll be hearing from corporate.’”
According to Congious, she went inside to tell her manager. The restaurant manager, as well as a higher-ranking manager who regularly visited the restaurant and another higher-ranking district manager who visited infrequently, happened to be present, she said. Congious said the district manager had greeted her in the parking lot when he arrived and expressed no problems regarding the mask.
But when Congious explained the lady planned to call corporate about the Black Lives Matter mask she said the managers told her the mask was inappropriate. Congious recorded a portion of a conversation with a woman who Congious says is one of the managers.
“Whataburger wants you to wear a mask that has no opinions whatsoever on them,” the manager said. “You’re entitled to your personal opinions, that’s fine. But at Whataburger we don’t want to portray them because some people may be offended. This is a big business. ... Whataburger doesn’t want to get into anything political because we’re just hamburgers and fries.”
On the recording, Congious asked management about how to give her two weeks notice for resigning. “Can I put my two weeks notice in?” she said.
A manager responded, “You want to put your two weeks notice in? We accept it and you don’t have to come back at all.”
On the recording, another employee can be heard complaining about being called the n-word by a customer. The employee said, “That’s why my life matters.”
Congious said she remained at the restaurant to get clarification about the mask policy and about what the manager meant regarding the two weeks notice. According to Congious and another employee, management soon called the police because she wouldn’t leave. Five police cars arrived, according to Congious and the employee.
“It was quick, too quick for calling the police,” Congious said. The Fort Worth Police Department confirmed it was called to Whataburger around 2:45 p.m. Tuesday. According to a spokesperson, “Officers made the scene and spoke with the female ex-employee who stated that all she wanted was the number to corporate to file a complaint. Ex-employee was provided number by the manager and then left scene without incident.”
In a statement sent after the original publishing of this article, a Whataburger spokesperson said the restaurant accepted her resignation and she will be paid for two weeks she was scheduled to work. The police were called, the spokesperson said, because “the employee began to make threats to our restaurant management.”
“Whataburger supports racial equality,” the statement read. “This is simply a matter of enforcing our uniform policy. Whataburger employees are provided company-issued masks that comply with our policy and adhere to CDC and local government guidance.”
Congious, who started working at the restaurant in May, said Whataburger had never communicated any policy related to political statements with the mask. She said the restaurant had distributed masks that were difficult to keep above the nose and told employees they could wear their own as long as they had a solid color. Congious said one employee had been wearing a mask with a Mexican flag and another had worn a disposable mask and written Black Lives Matter on it. She said one of the managers was wearing a solid-colored mask with a UFC emblem on Tuesday and then replaced it with a disposable mask after Congious was told hers was inappropriate.
Two other employees, inclulding one who has been at the restaurant for about a year, confirmed with the Star-Telegram that management at the Brentwood Stair restaurant had never explained a mask policy, other than to say masks need to be worn above the nose.
Congious asked the managers for a written mask policy that she later shared with the Star-Telegram. The three-page policy, dated May 1, gives no mention about political statements. A section regarding personal face covering procedures reads, “plain or work appropriate patterned bandanas or other cloth material may be used to cover your nose and mouth.”
“It was never posted, never read to us, never explained to us,” Congious said.
Congious said she wore the mask to side with a movement she believes brings attention to injustice and racism happening all over the world. To her, Whataburger’s actions represented an opposition to her support. She asked about resigning because she no longer felt comfortable working there. “This is the first time I’ve ever felt like this,” she said. “It’s not right.”
Across the country, other restaurant and grocery brands have been split on Black Lives Matter support. Starbucks provided Black Lives Matter t-shirts to employees, and McDonald’s said it would provide Black Lives Matter accessories. But other brands like Whole Foods forbid employees from wearing any material with slogans unrelated to the company.
Employment lawyers recently told the Chicago Tribune that while an employer can regulate what an employee wears, issues could arise with banning certain forms of expression, particularly if they are worn with the intent to protest racial discrimination at a workplace. Attorney Fern Trevino told the Tribune that employers could face discrimination allegations if dress codes are not consistently enforced.
A protest was held at the Brentwood Stair Whataburger on Wednesday night. An employee, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said several customers had been protesting earlier Wednesday by ordering large quantities of food and then driving off without picking up the food or paying.
Meanwhile, Congious, who graduated as salutatorian from New Beginning Christian Academy last year, hopes to find a better work opportunity. She has a son who is almost 4 months old, and Whataburger had been her first job since becoming a mother. She said she was already interviewing for another job by Tuesday evening.
“I’m not going to stop wearing my mask,” she added.
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 3:21 PM.
