Video of the altercation was filmed on Tuesday by Chanda Stewart, one of the women confronted at their booth. The disgruntled restaurantgoer was identified by local media station WRAL as Nancy Goodman.
The recording begins with the narrator panning toward Goodman and telling viewers that Goodman approached the women and informed them that they were “the rudest people that she has ever met.” Later, Goodman is seen pulling out her own cellphone to record the scene - she even walks over to the group to continue making her complaints.
“You’re too loud,” Goodman tells the diners, moments after informing the group that she has “really good friends that are black,” and that she “loves them.”
After one of the women says off-camera that her money is just as good as anyone’s, Goodman escalates the situation by responding, “You’re so stupid, n****r.” When one of the shocked patrons responds with “Call your black friends a n****r,” Goodman retorts with, “They’re not like you.”
In a Facebook post, Stewart noted that the current climate in the US “has some people thinking whatever they feel....they can say. The reality is if we were to retaliate with this same kind of hate and ignorance we would be called ‘angry black women.’”
“As I prepare my child for the real world, these are some of the people I prepare her for. The hateful, prejudiced, racists who think we should all ‘go back to where we came from,’” she added.
WRAL managed to get in contact with Goodman on Wednesday, and when asked about her choice of words, she indicated that she wished she had handled the situation differently. However, Goodman was not apologetic about the racial slur that came out of her mouth.
"Looking back on it now, I wish I would have asked the waiter to ask management if they would just quiet down," Goodman told the station. "Instead, I went off on them, which I shouldn’t have done. But I had had it. It was out of my control to calm down my anxiety."
"I’m not going to say I’m sorry to them, because they kept pushing at it … I would say it again to them. They are the rudest individuals I have ever seen,” she continued, later reiterating that she has “many black friends.”
Stewart and her friend Lakesha Shaw told the station they have no intention to return to the eatery, largely due to the fact that management failed to intervene and because a waiter informed the group that they should’ve handled the matter in a different way.
Bonefish has indicated that an investigation into the altercation is underway. The restaurant chain’s spokesperson told the Charlotte Observer that “the use of a racial slur by anyone in our restaurant is unacceptable” and that the company does “not tolerate this type of behavior.”
