Nov 3, 2023
WATCH: Bigoted Business Owner Shouts N-Word At Black Customers During Hateful Rant
- 8 minutes
[CROSSTALK]
[00:00:32]
>> Speaker 2: Yeah, Karen,
when you said that they
are acting like N words?
Well, that landed you on the local news.
Let's put it up full mass.
Let me give you the background.
This incident actually took place in
[00:00:47]
Macomb, Illinois,
at the shop called Spirit in the Sky.
NBC WGEM News confirmed the woman
in the video is the business owner.
Her name is Celene Cross.
[00:01:03]
Ms Cross said the aftermath of the video
isn't just affecting her business,
but it's impacting her personally.
Quote, I have received a death threat.
[00:01:20]
I have done nothing wrong.
I have broken no laws, end quote.
We don't endorse, obviously, violence or
death threats or anything of that nature.
But, madam, you're lying.
[00:01:35]
You did do something wrong.
You called patrons of
your store the N word.
You may have done this before.
This time you were recorded doing it.
They shop at your establishment.
Maybe you did not want the current
customers at that time shopping there, but
[00:01:55]
I'm sure black people at some point
have frequented your establishment.
You took their green while
disrespecting their black.
That is a problem.
You did something wrong.
All right, there's more.
So Ms Cross said,
the students in the video were upset
[00:02:13]
that she was keeping watch of the dressing
room as they tried on clothes.
You know the narrative.
They must be stealing, so
I'm going to keep watch.
She said she would have done this with
any customer as she's experienced people
[00:02:32]
stealing from a store and
is working to prevent further theft.
Ms Cross said one of the students in the
video was acting disrespectful toward her.
Well, Ms Cross, that's because she felt
that your actions were disrespectful
toward them for
following them in the store.
[00:02:49]
I've been there.
Prompting her to ask that student
to leave the store and not return.
Cross said the student she asked to
leave the store accused the shop
owner of calling her a slur prior
to the day the video was filmed.
[00:03:06]
Cross said in the video,
she was merely denying the accusation,
not calling the student the N word.
Cross said she did not use the N
word towards another individual,
as she has been accused
of saying in the video.
But if she did but
if she did, that should not
[00:03:22]
affect how she's treated by her community.
I'm trying not to, listen,
I got to get through it, okay?
The woman is actually
delusional in my opinion.
But there's more.
Quote, there's not an asterisk
on the First Amendment to
[00:03:40]
say that one color person can
say this particular word and
another color person can't
say this particular word,
which I have been told multiple times
by a particular color of person.
[00:03:56]
That's what she said, y'all,
by a particular color of person
that I can't say the word
because of the color of my skin.
In fact, that would be racist and
makes them racist, not me, end quote.
[00:04:16]
Do I really need to provide commentary for
that?
Okay, thank you.
Let's go on.
Put him up full mass.
So the mayor had to get involved.
I mean, this issue goes deep [LAUGH].
So now the mayor of Macomb, Illinois.
[00:04:33]
His name is Michael Inman.
So Mayor Inman said,
the business, by the way,
is not registered with the city and
is protected by freedom of speech,
and no laws were broken, so
there's no legal action to be taken.
[00:04:52]
The Chamber of Commerce
issued a statement.
The Chamber of damn Commerce said,
Spirit in the Sky is not
a chamber member [LAUGH].
[00:05:08]
Why did y'all have to say something?
However, college students, parents, and
residents gathered to
protest the business.
Cheyenne Henderson on the left,
a senior at WIU,
[00:05:25]
says she was there the night
the incident took place.
Quote, there should be no reason that
anybody should be treated like this,
but also, like, Macomb,
are you allowing this?
Are you guys allowing the residents
of your city to be treated this way?
[00:05:42]
Henderson said, WIU junior, Anjali Kraft
on the right, was also in the shop that
night and showed up on Monday to protest
and seek a boycott of the business.
Like a boycott,
nobody's shopping here anymore.
I want a business completely shut down,
end quote.
[00:06:01]
Let's put them up.
All right, those are your activists.
And now the business, Spirit in the Sky
has a 1.5 star rating on Facebook,
you see their information
present in case anyone would
[00:06:20]
like to frequent the establishment
in the near future.
I mean, the lack of awareness.
I mean, this woman said,
I did nothing wrong.
And she said, colored persons,
colored person can use
[00:06:39]
a word that I can't use because
of the color of my skin.
And then she goes on to say,
I didn't say it, but if I did say it,
I mean, wow, ma'am,
you let the news come and interview you.
All right, Ben,
this is a hell of a story, thoughts?
[00:06:56]
>> Speaker 3: This is such MAGA logic.
It's also OJ Simpson logic.
I didn't kill them but
let me write a book called if I did it,
here's exactly how I did it.
Here's something that I have never
understood, and you see it a lot.
[00:07:12]
I've heard it so
many times of people in the south,
they will use the N word pretty freely and
then say, but I have black friends.
Don't worry about it.
I'm just talking about people
that act a certain way.
And I always say to them, you don't
understand that if you don't like
[00:07:30]
the way somebody's acting,
you can use words to describe them
that aren't based on race and
that aren't derogatory race terms.
There are words that apply to all humans.
You can say they're idiots, they are
ignorant, they are mean, they are stupid.
[00:07:45]
Once you use a word that is one
of the most charged hateful and
horrible words in the English language,
it means that you are a racist person,
you're okay with racism.
And you're just sometimes willing to
let black people into your sphere,
[00:08:01]
which is the most racist mindset and
worldview possible.
I'm amazed I have to even say that,
but there you go.
There it is once more.
She has a Malcolm X quote, and
so she's allowed to be racist.
But the MAGA logic of
saying that it's racist for
[00:08:19]
somebody who's the victim of racism,
to say I shouldn't be
racist because that's infringing on
my speech is just a mind twist so
impressive that she could be elected
president by 50% of this country.
[00:08:37]
>> Speaker 2: Yeah,
that's the part, right?
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