Staff Reports
A video that blew up on social media shows a heated exchange at a Cinnabon kiosk in the Bay Park Square mall in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, where a white employee can be heard hurling a racial slur and declaring, “I am racist,” while a Somali couple records the incident. The clip sparked instant outrage and was shared widely across TikTok and X, forcing the story into the national spotlight almost overnight.
Cinnabon’s corporate account and the franchise owner replied with the now-familiar corporate playbook: immediate termination of the employee and a short statement condemning the behavior as unacceptable. That reflexive response from the brand is exactly the kind of pre-packaged apology designed to soothe the mob and protect a logo rather than address what actually happened in the moment.
Within hours conservative donors and activists had rallied behind the fired worker, identified in multiple reports as Crystal, launching a GiveSendGo campaign that drew six-figure attention and poured fuel on the culture-war flames. Supporters argue she was a hardworking mom who snapped after being recorded and provoked on shift, while critics rightly condemn the ugly language caught on camera.
This incident exposes two ugly truths about modern America: the ready willingness of corporations to pander to outrage and the raw power of viral clips to shape lives in seconds. Conservatives should be clear-eyed—cruel words must be condemned, but so must the rush to fire without any real accountability or context, and the weaponization of social platforms to destroy livelihoods. Opinion and due process matter, even when emotions run high.
Reporters also note the video’s uploader and related fundraisers for the couple, and that the clip has been framed very differently across outlets depending on their audience. The polarization in coverage shows how quickly our media ecosystem picks sides, amplifying narratives that fit their tribe instead of soberly sorting facts.
Meanwhile, the fundraising response for the fired employee demonstrates that tens of millions of Americans are fed up with performative corporate virtue and the cancel-first instincts of our institutions. If people want to help individuals harmed by public shaming, crowdfunding is one way the public can push back against managerial cowardice and demand more balanced outcomes.
Americans should reject racism in every form and also reject the new system that allows a 30-second viral clip to decide a person’s fate without investigation or proportionality. Real conservatives stand for both decency and justice; we can condemn hateful speech while pushing back against a culture that replaces judgment with hashtag trials and reflexive corporate sackings.
