Perhaps you’ve seen this video. A man follows a black person to his home, hurls racist insults at him, all while driving a van with his company’s name and phone number blazoned on the side. Just the stupidity hurts, but it’s the racism that makes it far, far worse.
ALL HANDS ON DECK.
"I just want to let you know what a nigger you are." -Jeffrey Whitman, owner of Uriahs Heating, Cooling, & Refrigeration in Columbus, OH
Jeffrey Whitman, in his own company vehicle, chased a Black man all the way to his home to repeatedly call him a nigger. pic.twitter.com/BMh3bHHBCS
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) July 25, 2018
Afterwards, the driver, Jeff Whitman (I think he dropped the “e” that belongs after the “t” in his name) was totally unapologetic. Calling someone the N-word?
“I don’t know if it makes it right or wrong all I can say is I grew up with it and not a big deal for me,” said the man in the van.
I guess that makes it all right. He was brought up as a racist, so no problem if he says racist things.
Unfortunately for him, his business is getting wrecked by a flood of negative reviews on social media, and the Better Business Bureau is suspending his accreditation. Whoops. Words have consequences. Now he’s ruined…but he still doesn’t understand what he did wrong.
“I’m out of business, I’m completely out, I’m done, I’ll never work in Columbus again,” Whitman said. “This has completely and thoroughly ruined my life.”
“I just don’t understand the intensity of the hate,” said the man who drove two miles out of his way to verbally abuse a complete stranger based on the color of his skin.
I just sort of feel like saying…your feelings don’t matter, snowflake. Nobody owes you a living. The free market has spoken. Suck it up, bucko.
Except that feelings do matter, and what wrecked your business was that you thought your bigotry against people was justified, and that what you really need to learn is some empathy for other human beings. It’s ignorance that killed Uriahs Heating, Cooling, and Refrigeration.
Steve Bruce says
Well all I could think of while reading this is another “martyr” for the free speech grifters. When can we expect an appearance on Rubin report?
lumipuna says
Steve,
He should totally change his business to “Hating, C**n-calling, Resegregation”
Because he just got a nationwide branding in that field, and some people might actually pay money.
cervantes says
He just doesn’t understand the intensity of the hate? WTF?
This is totally typical. What is really offensive is not racism, but calling somebody a racist. People had to vote for Trump because other people were calling them racists, is one common trope. (Viz. deplorablesgate.) It’s basically hopeless trying to communicate with these people.
Larry says
Coffee? check!
Comfy chair? check!
Uplifting “words have consequences” story? check!!
Day complete. Signing off.
Artor says
“I’m out of business, I’m completely out, I’m done, I’ll never work in Columbus again,” Whitman said. “This has completely and thoroughly ruined my life.”
What a nice bit of news in the morning! I’m glad to see there is still some justice to be had in the world.
Petal to the Medal says
“I just don’t understand the intensity of the hate.” What a perfect example of the way right-wing jackasses react when somebody calls them out for despicable behavior.
Mark Dowd says
That’s personal responsibility at its finest, folks. Things just happened, and they ruined his life. He had no control over it.
Giliell, professional cynic -Ilk- says
This is one of the greatest sentences ever written in journalism, hands down.
lakitha tolbert says
So he went out of his way to terrorize a complete stranger (and yes, that’s what it must have been like for the man on the receiving end of his bullsh*t) and he cannot connect his actions to the destruction of his livelihood?
WTF!!!
What a Maroon, living up to the 'nym says
Poor, misunderstood man. Poor, misunderstood, abhorrent, racist, white supremacist man.
This is the kind of voter we elite coastal progressives are supposed to be appealing to, right?
slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says
piling on:
it is getting tiresome how these people keep saying these contradictory ironies trying to defend their action.
sigh
?
Saad says
I heard before Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, he used to be an anti-racism social justice warrior.
hunter says
This guy’s never going to get it. You can’t fix stupid.
Samuel Vimes says
Ruined? Out of work? Unhirable because any HR department will be able to discover that you’re a horrible racist asshole?
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer Trump supporter (for an ironic value of ‘nice’).
thirdmill301 says
It’s a similar dynamic to what I occasionally saw as a family law attorney. A man would beat his wife and his kids, and then think it was a terrible, horrible violation of his rights when the law told him he had to stop. Because, you know, it was his right to beat his wife and kids, and who is anyone else to tell him he can’t do it?
imback says
#12 @Saad, so Hillary turned him into a Newt?
tigerprawn says
The fellow’s racist remarks notwithstanding, in most states it is generally unlawful to a) pull across traffic and stop a vehicle facing against oncoming traffic (because it requires a driver to cross oncoming traffic to return to the correct lane to proceed.) and b) stop a vehicle across a driveway. The allegation that he didn’t know the rules of the road in the incident that precipitated this exchange suddenly takes on a lot more weight.
Larry says
No, you can’t, but you can make it incredibly painful.
What a Maroon, living up to the 'nym says
imback @16,
If that’s the case, he certainly hasn’t gotten better.
blf says
He hasn’t got better.
And this doesn’t seem to be a case of being repressed by the violence inherent in the system.
Even the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog hasn’t ate him. Perhaps he soiled his “maga” hat (obviously inserted deep)?
damien75 says
This illustrates what I meant about “Who is America ?”. Pr. Myers has been reporting that kind of stories, say, weekly, for years now. How is he still surprised at Sacha Baron-Cohen’s show ?
robro says
So Uriah is in a heep of trouble? Poor baby. Things have changed a tad. Back in my days down yonder this kind of thing was so ordinary that “no one” (meaning white people) would even notice.
moarscienceplz says
I’m sure Fox News will give him a job. He’s their favorite kind of American.
Tabby Lavalamp says
All he has to do is start a GoFundMe and cry that the “SJWs” destroyed his freedom of speech and he should be fine.
Walter Solomon says
This is the “Joe the Plumber” of the Trump era; with all of the same stupidity you loved in the original but now with more racism!
Robert Serrano says
@25
Wait, I thought Trump was the “Joe the Plumber” of the Trump era.
gijoel says
Stop, stop, I’m all out of tears.
wzrd1 says
What I find odd is, I have also followed someone under similar conditions, for a similar distance and once they stopped, I was able to apologize for nearly slamming into them and compliment their excellent skills in avoiding my inattention.
Fortunately, inattention while driving is a rare event. But, we all have bad days.
WMDKitty -- Survivor says
“This has completely and thoroughly ruined my life.”
He made his bed, let him lie in it.
Crudely Wrott says
“I just don’t understand the intensity of the hate”, said the man who is consumed by it. Tacit admission of never having looked inside himself, of having taken stock of himself or of ever thought of himself as anything other than smart and correct and outstanding.
Nice to know he’s now out, standing by his work van wondering how much he can sell it for.
numerobis says
He called his plumbing company “Uriah” ?
bryanfeir says
@robro:
…
…
buries you under pennies until it looks like a copper field