A restaurant was forced to apologize after kicking their customer out because of his shoes.
William Johnson from Atlanta was about to have a meal at an upscale sushi restaurant together with his wife, Kaylan Colbert, when he was confronted by the staff and refused entry because of his Nike Air Force One sneakers.
As the manager of Buckhead’s Umi Sushi told Johnson, he was asked to leave the restaurant because sneakers violate their dress code.
In a viral video that sparked outrage and calls to boycott the restaurant, Johnson is seen defending his footwear saying that another customer, a woman, was wearing athletic sneakers as well.
“This is pure racism, she has on Adidas. That’s not right,” Johnson said. “What’s the difference?”
Responding to the upset customer, the manager insisted that the other diner was wearing ‘dress sneakers’ as he denied allegations of racism.
After about ten minutes of arguing, the discussion moved outside the restaurant where Johnson confronted the owner, Farshid Arshid, who insisted that both Nike and Adidas sneakers are prohibited in his restaurant.
“There’s no Adidas, there’s no Nikes. We don’t have sneakers,” Arshid claimed before walking away and refusing to acknowledge the couple’s comments about the other diner who was wearing sneakers.
“Oh, wow…You’re a n****r at the end of the day,” Colbert then told her husband, prompting Arshid to charge back at the couple believing that the racial slur was meant for him.
“Do you see what I’m f*****g wearing?” the restaurant owner yelled before Johnson stepped between him and his wife and warned him to back up.
“I don’t give a f*** what you’re wearing! Back up! Don’t go at my wife!” Johnson yelled back.
As the altercation continued, other employees threatened to call the police as Johnson became more aggressive towards Arshid. “I could buy my way right out of it. I’m not scared of jail. So don’t try me,” the upset customer replied.
Eventually, Colbert told the restaurant owner that they had “come here and spent thousands of dollars” only for Arshid to tell the couple “not anymore.”
After Arshid walked away once more, he appeared to taunt his customer by saying: “Look at you. Look at you.”
Following the confrontation, Colbert’s video went viral after rapper TI shared it and called for people to boycott the sushi restaurant.
After suffering a backlash, Arshid spoke out to FOX 5 and admitted the mistake on their end.
“This was completely, 100 percent an operational mistake on our end. When they got upset we should have investigated that,” he said.
As he added, he allegedly reached out to the upset customers in order to apologize for the issues.
Replaced!