My friends, regardless of your race, gender, religion, etc., has the word “nigger” (or any variant thereof), ever just “slipped” out of your mouth even though you hate the word? Asking for myself, because that is exactly what a Birmingham, Ala., Subway manager is claiming after she was captured on video loudly berating a black man, only to end her rant with a vehement “fucking nigger.”
Of course, April Epperson, the manager in question, has since been fired from her job after the video of the confrontation with Antuan Clark surfaced, but Epperson is trying to frame this all as an innocent “slip up,” like if she forgot to toast a customer’s bread when they asked.
According to WBRC, the incident all started when Clark went to visit his sister, who was working her first day at the Subway on Valley Avenue. Clark said he came to see his sister when Epperson called him inside and demanded that he get off the property.
“She’s in training and while she’s here she doesn’t need a distraction. I’m going to need them to get away from the property or step off the property while she’s at work,” Epperson said.
Seems fair enough, except Clark said that Epperson fired his sister on the spot and things got more heated as Clark tried to defend himself and his sister.
In the footage Clark recorded, Epperson can be seen repeatedly screaming at him to get out of her store.
At certain points, there appeared to be a struggle, where Epperson apparently seemed to attempt to grab Clark’s phone. Another white man, presumably with no affiliation to the store as he wasn’t in uniform, can also be seen demanding that Clark leave the store.
Eventually, Clark is shoved out of the store and Epperson closes the store door, only to crack it open to say, “Fucking nigger,” before closing it again.
Yup, that sure sounds like a slip up to me, nothing to see here.
Epperson played her white woman’s best hits, claiming that she felt threatened, and that’s why the slur popped out of her mouth.
“He punched me in my face. I pushed him out the door because that was the only thing I knew to do. I felt like I was in danger. I pushed him out the door. He punches me in my face and as soon as I shut the door, the only thing that came out of my mouth was, ‘Nigger,’ and I’m sorry. It could have been a Mexican standing there. It popped out of my mouth that’s what that Mexican would have got called. That white person would have got called that too,” Epperson claimed, saying the word again for the news station, just for the culture, you know?
A WBRC reporter asked Epperson if she uses the n-word often.
“No. I hate that word,” she claimed.
Epperson told the news station that she has no problem accepting punishment and losing her job over the use of the word, but what’s really getting to her is the fact that people now know say she’s a racist.
“I said the wrong word. I’m sorry for it. I am taking my punishment and I’m walking away from it. I get that I screwed up. I’m a big girl. I can handle it. But I can’t handle being called racist on national television over a slip up,” Epperson said.
A slip up y’all. It was all a huge misunderstanding. Y’all understand, I’m sure. The word hasn’t just popped out of your mouth before? It’s not like it’d have to be a word that is in regular rotation in your vocabulary for it to just pop out like that.
Epperson has apologized several times, and also issued some of the greatest hits from the white people’s album, claiming that she had black family members, and what she said wasn’t meant to be hurtful.
Subway, for its part, has distanced itself from the entire incident, claiming that what happened is not a reflection of its core values.