One Houston Family Dollar employee got the wake up call of a lifetime after a Black man schooled her about watching what she says. He recorded the entire interaction which has since gone went viral online. Now, the corporate office has gotten involved.
Deon “Chico” Young was standing in line waiting to check out at a local Family Dollar. But when the customer in front of him began having a conversation with the cashier in Spanish, things took an interesting turn. “She [the customer] asked the girl behind the counter ‘what about the white tenis’”— the Spanish word for shoes, Young recalled to Fox 26 News.
The conversation between the two women continued until the cashier allegedly told the woman “‘I put the box behind the counter because... the Black people be stealing,’” Young translated adding, “but she said it in Spanish in a derogatory way.” On the surface, Young looks like your average southern Black man, but little did the cashier know he’s actually fluent in Spanish and heard everything they said about Black folks. That’s when Young started recording.
“Let me give you a word of advice,” Young told the young cashier. “Man, you got to watch what you say when you say it... because you don’t know who speaks Spanish.” The cashier quickly backtracked and tried to justify the offensive statements she made just moments before.
“Yo soy Cubano. Yo entiendo,” he told her in response. In fact, Young’s mother is Creole from Houston, and his father is Cuban. Because of this, Young is fluent in English, Spanish and French.
“I was just saying it,” the cashier repeatedly said to Young before accusing him of recording her. Young, who was only filming himself at the time, told the woman “I ain’t recording you. I’m recording myself.” Then, he turned the camera to the cashier while saying “I’m recording you now.”
The video was posted to Young’s TikTok account, @chicodeon. As it was uploaded almost a week ago, it’s garnered 739,500 views. A friend of Young’s eventually posted the video on Facebook, getting even more attention. Now, the video has gone viral and even got the attention on Family Dollar’s corporate office, who gave Young a personal call.
“Corporate called me to apologize. That made me feel good that somebody took out their time— that somebody responded to my complaint,” Young told Fox 26. The company promised him they would “take care of the situation,” but Young said he wasn’t trying to get the employee fired, but “es lo que es— it is what it is.”
It’s unclear if the cashier was indeed fired from that Family Dollar, but Young told the company that was not his intention. “I was just tryna make her aware of not having certain conversations— especially at work— around us folks,” Young said. “Because we’re Black doesn’t mean we don’t understand what you’re saying.”