California Accountant Fired After Berating Elderly Man Wearing MAGA Hat

California Accountant Fired After Berating Elderly Man Wearing MAGA Hat
President Donald Trump hands a signed "Make America Great Again," hat back to a supporter in Reno, Nev., on Aug. 23, 2017. Alex Brandon/AP Photo
Tom Ozimek
Updated:

A California music shop accountant was fired after she berated an elderly man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat inside a Palo Alto Starbucks, according to reports.

Rebecca Parker Mankey was dismissed from her job at Gryphon Stringed Instruments after she took to social media to post details of her encounter with a 74-year-old Trump supporter she called a “hater of brown people,” the Palo Alto Weekly reported.

Mankey said on her husband’s Facebook and Twitter accounts that she yelled at the man and tried to get other Starbucks customers to join her in attacking the MAGA hat-wearing man.

“I am going to publicly shame him in town and try to get him fired and kicked out of every club he is in,” Mankey wrote, according to a screenshot posted by an account with the Twitter handle @RightHookUSA, which said it would contact Mankey’s employer “to show them the violence their employee’s wife is promoting.”

“I am going to go to his house and march up and down carrying a sign that says he hates black people,” Mankey allegedly wrote about the man, according to a screenshot of her post. “I am going to organize protests where he works and make him feel as unsafe as he made every brown person he met today.”

Mankey also wrote that she told the man to call the police so that she could find out his name and address, and where his children went to school.

“I yelled at him,” she wrote, “Called the entire Starbucks to order and yelled at him more about how it is not ok to hate brown people. He threatened to call the cops. I left after yelling at him some more.”

The Twitter account@RightHookUSA later posted a photo purporting to show a photo of Mankey.

‘Fear in the Air’

The man, who has not been identified by name, corroborated the account, according to the Weekly.

He told the publication he wears the MAGA hat regularly and recounted how people have come up to him saying they, too, would like to wear the hats but are concerned about the possible consequences.

“There’s a fear in the air,” he told the Weekly. “I hope this doesn’t start a trend of people getting in your face.”

The man told the Weekly he would keep wearing his MAGA hat in public as an exercise of freedom of speech, “until North Korea (or another totalitarian regime) takes over our government.”

In a statement posted on the Gryphon Facebook page, the company announced that Mankey had been fired and that her actions were “not indicative of how we conduct ourselves at the shop.”

Gryphon Manager Matt Lynch told the Weekly that Mankey’s actions did not reflect the company’s attitude.

“What she said in no way reflects Gryphon or how the company feels,” Lynch said. “It’s a big shock to us.”

The red MAGA hats, first worn during the 2016 election by supporters of then-candidate Donald Trump, have since become a symbol of sympathy for some or all of the president’s policies.

Restaurant ‘Manager’ Denies Service to MAGA Hat Man in Social Experiment

Hidden cameras were set up last year for an episode of “What Would You Do?” at the Randolph diner in Randolph, New Jersey, to conduct a social experiment.

An actor pretending to be the restaurant manager refused service to a patron because he was wearing a MAGA hat, and a hidden camera crew filmed peoples’ reactions.

“I’m gonna ask you to remove your hat,” the manager told a man identified as Brian, adding that he would not be served if he wears a MAGA hat.

“I’m not taking off the hat,” Brian responds.

“The hat is upsetting to people in this restaurant,” insists the manager.

But Brian is determined not to take off the hat and explains, “They don’t look upset to me.”

The back-and-forth conflict catches the attention of those seated nearby, and there are a variety of reactions.

“That guy made a judgment of that gentleman sitting there, just based on his hat, and not based on his character … like how good of a person he was,” said one of the patrons. “I think that’s just really wrong.”

“I don’t think that politics is a justification for not serving,” said another.

Check out the episode below:

Actress Criticized for Tweet About MAGA Hats

Actress Alyssa Milano recently tweeted about MAGA hats, likening them to the white hoods worn by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
“The red MAGA hat is the new white hood,” she wrote in a tweet, referencing a clip from a video of a confrontation between activist Nathan Phillips and a group of high school students.

“Without white boys being able to empathize with other people, humanity will continue to destroy itself,” Milano wrote in her tweet, adding the hashtag, “#FirstThoughtsWhenIWakeUp.”

The actress received backlash for her tweet with many users telling her she didn’t have all the facts.

“Please get the whole story,” one social media user wrote. “These kids did not start this.”
“This is not insightful, true, pithy or intelligent,” reads another tweet. “Here’s an idea get off of social media, think about this for another decade or two then tell us your thoughts.”

In the video, one student from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky could be seen standing still and smiling while a Native American activist entered the group, approached the student, and beat a drum within inches of his face. The incident occurred in Washington on Jan. 18, after the anti-abortion March for Life. The students, many of whom were wearing “Make America Great Again” hats, said they were confused about what the activists were doing and said they’ve faced death threats due to the hostile and inaccurate media coverage.

Milano has refused to apologize for her tweet and even wrote an opinion piece in The Wrap defending her comments, reported Hollywood Life.
Epoch Times reporters Janita Kan, Jack Phillips, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tom Ozimek
Tom Ozimek
Reporter
Tom Ozimek is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times. He has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education.
twitter
Related Topics