Staff Reports
A viral clip out of Wisconsin shows a heated exchange at a Cinnabon kiosk that ended with an employee hurling a racial slur at a Somali couple and announcing, “I am racist.” The video prompted the franchise owner to fire the worker almost immediately, and the story exploded online as both sides rushed into the court of social media. Conservatives and free-speech defenders watched the rush to judgment with alarm even as most of us recoil from the vile language on camera.
Let’s be crystal clear: racist language is ugly and wrong, and nobody who prides themselves on decency ought to celebrate it. That said, we must also be wary of the mob’s power to destroy a person’s life in an instant, often based on a short clip with no chance for context or correction. Employers who reflexively bow to online outrage teach their employees that one moment of madness or poor judgement equals permanent exile, rather than rehabilitation or due process.
The reaction on the right was predictable and instructive: when mainstream platforms and payment processors won’t host a defense fund, alternative sites step in and Americans rally. A GiveSendGo fundraiser for the fired employee rapidly drew six-figure support from people who saw cancel culture in action and wanted to push back on corporate apologies and immediate sackings. Whether you agree with those donors or not, the outpouring exposes a fault line: cultural arguments are now being fought with cash and platforms, not just hashtags.
For conservatives this incident is not an endorsement of the behavior caught on tape but a reminder of the ever-growing power of online mobs and the cozy relationship between woke brands and their PR-driven responses. When a corporation’s first instinct is to kneel and a platform’s first instinct is to censor, ordinary Americans lose faith in the fairness of public life. If justice is to mean anything in America, it should include a level playing field: employers must enforce standards, but the public must resist vindictive, gleeful destruction of livelihoods.
There’s also a bigger conversation here about community, assimilation, and respect. The tensions in stores, schools, and public squares don’t exist in a vacuum; they come from failed integration policies, a national conversation that rewards grievance, and a media that sensationalizes conflict for clicks. Conservatives should use this moment to demand sensible immigration and assimilation policies, stronger local enforcement of decency, and a cultural reset that favors responsibility over victimhood.
Hardworking Americans should never celebrate ugliness, but we should refuse to hand our lives over to an angry, unaccountable online mob — and we should expect our institutions to show muscle, not spineless, performative apologies. Stand for due process, for the right to earn a living, and for the idea that people can be held accountable without being destroyed forever. That is not sympathy for bigotry; it is a call to restore common-sense justice, personal responsibility, and a civic culture that allows for repentance and repair.
