«Breaking News» Black woman accuses New York City coffee shop The Bean of racism after being asked to buy something

Ericka Hart, a sex educator who is a black woman, was bothered at being the only person asked if she had ordered anything at The Bean in the East Village in New York City, and was later told she 'was making a big deal out of nothing'

A white male employee at a lower Manhattan coffee shop singled out a black woman to ask if she had ordered anything, the woman asked him why he hadn't asked anyone else, and then the manager told her she 'was making a big deal out of nothing.'

Ericka Hart, a sex educator who has a masters degree in education, shared what happened to her in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

'#sittingincafeswhileblack || They will do anything so you are left wondering if it happened,' Hart wrote at the end of the post detailing how she was treated at The Bean on Astor Place. 

Co-owner Ike Escava apologized to Hart for the 'terrible experience she had,' after she claimed she had been sitting in the coffee shop amongst other people who hadn't ordered anything when the employee asked her and her alone to make a purchase.

Escava added, 'Nobody should ever be made to feel singled out for any reason, least of all for the color of their skin.'

The Bean (pictured) co-owner Ike Escava responded in a social media post on the store's account on Wednesday, apologizing to Hart for the 'terrible experience she had,' but noting the store does require purchases, while adding: 'Nobody should ever be made to feel singled out for any reason, least of all for the color of their skin'

Hart used an image of white text on a black background as the photo for a post on Tuesday, which read, 'If it looks like racism, smells like racism, maybe is racism, where they just being racist? racism.

'Believe yourself. Don't let them tell you otherwise.

'It's racism.'  

Hart went into detail about what happened to her at The Bean in the East Village that day, describing in detail how she the only person asked to buy something, how the scenario made her react almost reflexively, and how the entire ordeal made her feel.

Hart used an image of white text on a black background as the photo for a post on Tuesday, which read, 'If it looks like racism, smells like racism, maybe is racism, where they just being racist? racism. Believe yourself. Don't let them tell you otherwise. It's racism'

'So I am sitting at @thebeannyc on Astor PL in NYC and a presumable white cis man comes up to me and asks if I have bought anything,' she wrote.

'I have been sitting here for about 20 min, so I find this question weird as there is no signage indication that an order needs to be placed within a certain amount of time. I go to the counter (racism is evil genius, making you act accordingly) at his request to order something and then it occurs to me that he has not asked anyone around me this question.

'I ask to speak to the person who asked me to buy something as I wanted to know the basis as this has never happened to me in my 9 years sitting in cafes in NYC.

'As I am speaking to this person, the manager walks up behind me and interrupts our interaction with an introduction. I wonder how he knew what we were talking about...or did he tell his staff to ask me as he has been sitting one seat away from me since I sat down?'

Hart went into detail about what happened to her at The Bean in the East Village that day, describing in detail how she the only person asked to buy something, how the scenario made her react almost reflexively, and how the entire ordeal made her feel. Tables at The Bean on Astor Place are shown in a photo posted to Yelp

When the manager showed up, Hart explained to him that she was bothered at being the only person asked to place an order. Hart is pictured in a photo posted on October 13

Now that Hart had the manager's attention, she went on to explain to him why she was bothered at being asked to place an order.

'I tell him that being asked if I had bought anything after I had been siting there for 20 minutes made me uncomfortable especially in my positionality and no one else has been asked,' she wrote.

'He tells me "this does not make anyone uncomfortable and it's not (waves hands to help him look for a word other than 'race') about your identity."

'I let him know I would be posting this on social media and he said "I am making a big deal out of nothing" 

'I'm now looking at people who haven't purchased anything and have not been asked when they will be. So here I am, making a big deal out of nothing.'

At one point, she was told she was 'making a big deal out of nothing,' which as described, sounded a lot like gaslighting. Hart is pictured in a photo shared to social media on August 1

A full day after Hart shared the post on social media, The Bean co-owner Escava finally responded with an apology and information about the purchase policy

A full day after Hart shared the post on social media, The Bean co-owner Escava finally responded with regard to the purchase policy.

'We do in fact have a policy requiring people to make a purchase in order to use the tables in the shops but the enforcement of the policy needs to be carried out in a better way than it was in this case,' he wrote.

Escava made mention that he had read the comments about the incident, and would take steps to put people on notice of the store's rules about when an order is required.

'I saw some suggestions about having better signage regarding this policy and will get that done, thank you,' he said.  

Escava acknowledged how terribly Hart had been treated, and that her race should not have played any part in how his employees behaved towards her, but stopped short of calling what happened 'racism.'

'I will review all of our training policies and speak to each of our employees over the next few days in order to ensure that we do better with this,' he said. 

'I will get to the bottom of exactly how and why we went wrong here and take whatever measures are needed to correct it going forward.'

Escava acknowledged how terribly Hart had been treated, and that her race should not have played any part in how his employees behaved towards her, but stopped short of calling what happened 'racism.' The interior of The Bean on Astor Place is pictured

Link hienalouca.com

https://hienalouca.com/2018/12/01/black-woman-accuses-new-york-city-coffee-shop-the-bean-of-racism-after-being-asked-to-buy-something/
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Ericka Hart, a sex educator who is a black woman, was bothered at being the only person asked if she had ordered anything at The Bean in the East Village in New York City, and was later told she ‘was making a big deal out of nothing’

A white male employee at a lower Manhattan...

It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.

Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.

Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca





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