There’s absolutely zero justification for using any sort of racist language during an argument. Really, as soon as I hear someone utter any sort of racist slurs, they lose any credibility and respect I had for them. Case in point, a wild snippet of footage is circulating on social media right now and sees a former Merrill Lynch wealth manager not only hurling racist slurs at young female employees of a Robeks smoothie shop, but hurling a smoothie at them, too. The incident was captured on camera and was shared to Reddit earlier today. Be warned, the footage may be upsetting.
[21 Dec Update – The Reddit post has since been removed by admins, so I’ve embedded another Reddit video of the same incident below.]
The viral clip opens in a Robeks smoothie shop in Fairfield, Connecticut. A man in a blue jumper, whose name is James Iannazzo, is stood behind the counter. Meanwhile, a young female employee is stood on the other side of the counter opposite him. It appears that the footage is recorded by one of the employee’s on their phone. “Please don’t yell at us.” requests the Robeks worker.
“Don’t videotape me. I wanna speak to a f***ing person who made this drink! Is that you?” yells Iannazzo. “We don’t know who made it. There’s four of us here so we don’t know who made it.” replies the worker. “F***ing ignorant high school kids. I wanna speak to the f***ing manager. Get the f*** out of here you ignorant b****es. Give it to me right now.”
It’s at this point where things take a serious turn for the worse, as the man hurls the smoothie he’s holding directly at one of the employee’s heads. The woman yelps in shock as the smoothie hits her directly in the side of her face. “I’m calling the police!” one of the employees fires back as tension begins to escalate further.
The man then begins to walk around to the secured employee door in a bid to get in. “Shut the f*** up! You’re a f***ing idiot! You f***ing immigrant loser!” The footage ends with one of the employee’s desperately pleading her team to “Call the police now.”
The shocking footage is sending shockwaves around the internet, with hundreds of comments and upvotes coming in thick and fast.
Every retail job I’ve ever had, these types of bullies shut up real quick when the stockroom guy from the back comes out to defend the young lady running the register. They’re cowards.
TheGutter420
A second commenter weighed in with, “I use to run a Smoothie King and a Jamba Juice in my mid to late 20s. Unfortunately creeps like this guy are a dime a dozen. I’m a woman and after working as a line cook and sous chef, I can hold my own. […] I’ve had to call the cops several times over grow a** adults throwing temper tantrums over a f***ing smoothie.”
A third netizen added, “Wonder if he would have behaved this way if the employees were boys. Trashy to call high school girls b****es.”
Thankfully, Iannazzo wasn’t able to get into the secured employee door. Instead, he fled the scene before the police arrived.
Importantly, however, there is some context as to why Iannazzo was so irate. Essentially, when Iannazzo went through the drive-thru to get a smoothie, he asked for “no peanut butter” as his 17-year-old son is allergic. However, after drinking the smoothie, Iannazzo’s son went into anaphylactic shock and was hospitalised, which is why he was angry.
Don’t get me wrong, that’s still no reason to be aggressive and hurl racist remarks at the employees. Frankly, he should’ve taken up the issue with managers at Robeks’s corporate office, rather than assault and threaten the staff. Furthermore, according to one of the Robeks employees, Charli Hill, who spoke to NBC News: “He just said no peanuts in it, but if you don’t say you have a nut allergy — which is an option on the app and in person — we use different stuff if there’s a nut allergy … so he didn’t tell us he had an allergy.“
Nevertheless, Iannazzo did end up giving himself in to authorities, and he was even fired from his employer Merrill Lynch for his unacceptable and threatening behavior. Fortunately, Iannazzo’s son survived the allergic reaction and the employees at the Robeks didn’t require medical attention. Still, whatever the case may be, it’s a damning portrayal of emotions running wild in the heat of a crises, and a case study of what not to do when accidents like these strike.
