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Internet hails Black man who respectfully confronted Dillards employee who called him N-word in front of son

The employee, who mumbled 'f*****g n****' loudly enough for the 10-year-old boy to hear, was subsequently fired

A White employee at a Texas department store was caught on camera saying the N-word to a Black man in front of the latter's 10-year-old son. The man's cousin posted a video of the incident on Instagram, following which it went viral. The employee was subsequently fired.

The cousin wrote that the man and his son, along with another adult, were shopping for clothes at the NorthPark Centre Dillard's in Dallas when the incident took place. The man asked an employee, Homer, where the fitting rooms were. The apparently racist Homer then allegedly pointed at the rooms and mumbled "f**king n*****". He was apparently loud enough for the boy and the other adult to hear.

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"Today at @dillards in @northparkcenter Mall an older male BY THE NAME OF HOMER, decided today would be the day that he expresses his lifelong #HATE for #BlackPeople," the cousin wrote on Instagram, sharing the video. "Unfortunately, a 10 year old male was exposed to how cruel this world can be towards him BECAUSE OF THE COLOR OF HIS SKIN but his father showed him the right way to handle the situation, gracefully," the cousin added.

The father calmly walked up to the employee and told him that his son had heard him say the slur. "I want you to know that it's unacceptable, I want you to know this, and it’s unacceptable. You shouldn’t do that. You’re too old. My family has patronized Dillard’s for many years. I carry myself with honor. I would never disrespect any human being by calling them outside of their name. That’s what you did. You don’t know the impact of what you have done to my son," he said.

The employee said that he uttered the slur because he hurt his leg and "didn't even know that you are". The father interrupted, saying, "I have grace and honor, and I was raised with morals and values. But I lost a lot. I lost my mother. I lost my mother-in-law. I lost my sister. All last year. You don’t know what mental state the next human being could be in."

The man warned Homer that "it wouldn’t be a cop. It wouldn’t be a security guard. It wouldn’t be nobody that can stop me from getting on your ass if I wanted to, you understand me?" "So I want you to know that, think about that. It doesn’t matter about the age," he said. "Treat human beings with respect and morals and values. You understand that? Now I have to go home, and correct my 10-year-old not to be a damn idiot. Don’t act a fool. Don’t be like Homer. Homer don’t have respect for my kind, or any human being."

Whether or not Homer apologized is unclear but Dillard's later tweeted that the employee was fired after working at the store for 20 years. "The allegations made against our former employee were promptly investigated, found to be in clear violation of our standards, and his employment with Dillard’s was immediately terminated," the company wrote on Twitter.