UPDATED: July 25, 2018
Maurice Rucker, a 60-year-old Black man working at a Home Depot, was following store policy when a customer subjected him to a racist rant. Rucker responded to the customer and Home Depot fired him last week. But after backlash, the company now wants to give him his job back.
Based in Atlanta, The Home Depot Inc. is lead by chairman, CEO and President Craig Menear and has no Black men on its
executive leadership team or its senior leadership team.
Rucker was working a booth in the garden center at an Albany, N.Y., store when a customer approached with an unleashed dog.
“I said to him, ‘Sir, when you have your dog in here we prefer that you keep it on a leash,'” Rucker said of the incident that occurred on July 12, according to
WNYT.
The customer turned around and said, “F**k you. You’re an a*****e you’re a piece of s**t,” Rucker explained.
The customer then brought up Donald Trump.
“If Trump wasn’t president, you wouldn’t even have a job,” Rucker said the customer told him. “You’re from the ghetto, what do you know”
Rucker mentioned, “I’ve lived all over the country and I’ve had no one talk to me the way that this guy talked to me.”
So, he decided to stand up for himself. Rucker left his booth, walked up to the man and demanded he leave the store, according to the
Albany Times Union.
“You’re lucky I’m at work, because if I wasn’t, this wouldn’t be happening, or you wouldn’t be talking to me like this,” Rucker said he told the man.
“I’m a Black man, and I have dealt with all levels of racism all my life,” he told the Times Union. “I am not going to accept racist behavior at work, home, the streets or anyplace else.”
The customer left the store, but came back because he left his dog. He then insulted Rucker once more before leaving again.
Five days after the incident, Home Depot fired Rucker.
“We take any termination very seriously and we’re careful to ensure associates are treated fairly,” Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes said in a statement.
“In this case, we’re appalled by the customer’s behavior and no one should have to endure verbal abuse, but we also must require associates to follow proper protocol to defuse a situation for the sake of their safety as well as the safety of other associates and customers.”
Rucker, employed by Home Depot for 10 years, worked at the store in Albany for seven years and prior to that worked at both a Vermont and Boston-area store. His hourly salary when he began with the company was $12 and his salary was only $12.78 when he was fired.
After word spread of Rucker’s termination, Home Depot faced backlash.
I bought $340 worth of stuff from Home Depot last weekend. I’ll be returning every. single. item.
— Shannon Berndt (@Berndttoast) July 20, 2018
A GoFundMe page was created for Rucker.
In 10 years, @HomeDepot gave Mr. Rucker only an 86 cent raise. Then they fired him after an angry racist racially abused him
If y’all can, pitch in a few bucks for Mr. Rucker at this @IndivisibleNet fundraiser for him. Let’s help right this wronghttps://t.co/CQh0rOHeIR
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@MuslimIQ) July 21, 2018
The retailer has now decided to rehire Rucker.
“We’ve taken another look at this and we are offering Maurice his job back,” spokesman Stephen Holmes said Friday evening in an email to the Times Union.
