“Terrorist” Waiter Stiffed by Customers is a Liar

A few days ago, I shared a post onto my Facebook page about a Saltgrass waiter in Odessa, Texas named Khalil who claimed to be stiffed by his customers, saying they don’t tip terrorists. “I share this because I want people to understand that this racism, and this hatred still exists,” Khalil wrote. “Although, this is nothing new, it is still something that will test your faith.” After I shared the viral receipt, I read hundreds of comments from people, some who sympathized with him and some who floated the possibility that he had made it up. I vigorously stood up for Khalil, shooting down anyone who assumed that he was doing it for attention and potential donations. I banned several people from the page who spouted racist views. I argued with others, refusing to believe that a server would knowingly open up a can of racism.

I was wrong.

Khalil has come out to say that he fabricated the whole story. He is no longer employed at Saltgrass and his post has been deleted I owe some of you an apology. To those of you who considered the idea that he was an attention-seeking drama queen, I’m sorry. However, I am not sorry to those that were banned from the page, because whether the story was true or not, I won’t tolerate racist comments and narrow-minded assholes, so those assholes are still banned. To everyone else, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for sharing something that was not true and I’m sorry for defending a liar.

And to Khalil I have this to say:

What the fuck were you thinking? Isn’t there already enough racism and hate in this world without having to stir up some more? Maybe you didn’t expect your Facebook photo to go viral, but even if you only thought your friends and family would see it, why did you want to lie to them? Was it some pathetic attempt to remind everyone that racism exists? Guess what, Khalil, we already knew that. Turn on your fucking TV and watch the news from CNN to FOX to MSNBC to BBC and you will 100% see something about racism in the United States. We don’t need you to create some fucking social media experiment to prove it. It’s in our face every day. You are contributing to “fake news” and reinforcing a few stereotypes while you do it. Thanks to you, the general public is going to keep assuming that servers are idiots. Thanks to you, even more people will think that folks in Odessa, Texas hate anyone with a name like yours. Thanks to you, the next time a server actually does get a receipt with something vile and hateful written on it, no one will believe them. Your little stunt did nothing but hurt people, including yourself because for the rest of your life, when anyone Googles your name they are going to know about the time you made up a story and created a social media firestorm just became you thought it would be fun.

Once again, I am sorry for posting it. I do my due diligence before sharing things, but this story already had traction, being covered n USA Today, CBS and the Washington Post. It seemed real. To everyone who questioned its legitimacy that I fought back against, I’m sorry. And to Khalil, fuck you.

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