After a Holiday Inn Express worker was harshly criticized by a customer, provoking the employee to apparently suffer a mental breakdown while the customer kept berating him, a self-described journalist who calls himself “The World’s #1 Race-baiter” posted the video online, framing the situation in racial terms by highlighting that the employee was white and the customer black.
Tariq Nasheed wrote on Twitter as he posted the video, “A white Holiday Inn Express worker has a nervous breakdown after he got scolded by a Black customer because of a mistake in the reservation system.”
https://twitter.com/tariqnasheed/status/1386455776936427522
In the video, the customer says to the employee, who is seated behind a computer on the hotel’s counter, “Because you all made a mistake?”
The employee responds as he scans the computer, “Not really, no.”
“So you want to get mad and hit the computer because you made a mistake, because your company made a mistake, you want to take it out on me?” the customer says.
“I’m not taking it out on you,” the employee quietly responds, looking up at the customer.
“So why did you get mad and hit the computer? Why did you get mad and hit the computer?” the customer presses.
“Cause I am —” the clearly frazzled employee responds.
“I’m sure you’re on camera, right?” the customer taunts.
Employee, standing behind the computer, “Yeah, I am.”
Customer, repeating, “I’m sure you’re on camera.”
That remark prompts the employee to suddenly hit himself repeatedly in the face, then bash his face violently into the computer.
The customer then snaps, “So this is the type of people they have working here.”
The employee, sobbing walks away, weeping, “I’ve gotta go … you’ve ruined my whole life, man.”
“Wow. You’ve gotta be kidding me,” the customer says as the employee can be heard wailing and the person holding the camera walks around to a different side of the counter so he can continue filming the distraught employee. The customer again intones, “Wow.”
The employee has quit his job because of the harassment, Jeremy @TheQuartering has started a go fund me, please give if you can.
Also, please don’t treat people with mental health issues working in minimum wage jobs during a pandemic like this.https://t.co/IrTv2ySVWX
— Seerut K. Chawla (@seerutkchawla) April 26, 2021
After Nasheed was heavily criticized for posting the video with his racially-focused description, he answered, “The Holiday Inn employee video I posted that went viral, has a lot of white supremacists using the man’s disorder as a way to project their anti-Black racism. He admitted he had a disorder. But he also admitted he was drunk on the job. So did that contribute to his breakdown?”
The Holiday Inn employee video I posted that went viral, has a lot of white supremacists using the man's disorder as a way to project their anti-Black racism.
He admitted he had a disorder. But he also admitted he was drunk on the job. So did that contribute to his breakdown? pic.twitter.com/mJrhiDWI3b
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) April 26, 2021
A post on Reddit that claimed to be from the employee stated that the employee drove back to work drunk after the incident.
Oh hey! That’s me. Literally on the edge of my rope and contemplating a lot of things as I view this. Doesn’t anyone have a bad day anymore? I’m the front desk guy at this hotel I am the subject of this video. What the guy recording Didn’t record was him calling me a F***** for “taking his money” which is my job as well as threatening my job security. … Right before starting his recording, I TOLD him “I have mental illness I need a moment to think” before he kept going and going and going and going before it became too much. Yes, I have BPD with schizo-active tendencies. This was not one of my best moments. Mental illness is real and it can literally destroy lives. All I wanted to do was help them (which I couldn’t, because at that point my hands were tied), but if they pressure me and try to argue with me, I don’t know how to handle it usually.
The post continued:
[I]t escalated anyway. His family is calling me and threatening my life. Harassing my old associates. I haven’t eaten since 1 a.m. about two hours before this video was shot at about 3 a.m. It’s destroying me. I wanted to say I’m sorry ‘though past this point I can’t make it right’ and he still wouldn’t hear me. I drove to work drunk today. … I drove drunk back to work. They are housing me. Idk why I did anything. I dk know why I drove drunk but I sure did and now I’m here. In a hotel room. In the place where I lost my Mind. Still drunk after driving drunk. Drunk since 6 a.m.
https://twitter.com/Nervatel/status/1386817363014676486
Nasheed was heavily criticized on social media for posting the video and racially framing it:
So what's important to Mr. Nasheed is that this poor fellow is white.
That's it.
A customer sees fit to publish a video of a person clearly suffering from a crisis. The customer's reaction is callous and exploitative.
If this is about race, our society is doomed to collapse. https://t.co/BilFwRtKup
— Nan Hayworth, M.D. (@NanHayworth) April 26, 2021
He had a mental breakdown man… this had nothing to do with race… kinda sad to see. https://t.co/aKjwFaRBHI
— Khalil Underwood (@RealKhalilU) April 26, 2021
https://twitter.com/IamJovonW/status/1386769499018436612
No sir, this is a customer harrassing an employee with clear mental health issues and laughing at his mental illness. And you sir, you only can see race in this sad event.
How petty is that?#WokeFanatism https://t.co/AVCp0JV7lq— Dyab Abou Jahjah (@Aboujahjah) April 26, 2021
This is pure evil. What would possess you to attack this poor young man? https://t.co/fr69RYZimk
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) April 26, 2021
https://twitter.com/LozzaFox/status/1386678638469394433
Not pictured in this video: the customer calling the Holiday Inn worker with BPD/schizophrenia all sorts of homophobic slurs. So you support harassing workers with mental health issues and recording it?
The racial hucksters will stop at nothing to promote their agenda. https://t.co/5NcocVyefT
— Erielle Azerrad (@politicalelle) April 26, 2021
