Miami Beach, FL – Yeshaya Diveroli said he went inside the Dunkin Donuts in Miami Beach when a now-former employee, Alton Rice, hurled racist and antisemitic insults at him. “I don’t give a fuck stinking ass Jew,” said the Dunkin employee.
“It made me feel beneath myself,” said Diveroli.
“Yes, I’m fucking following you,” said the employee.
An antisemitic statement was just part of a rant caught on camera outside the Dunkin Donuts at 1606 Alton Road in Miami Beach.
“Antisemitism should never be tolerated,” said Diveroli.
Diveroli said that day, he was there to pick up his coffee and claimed when an employee saw his name on the order, the employee went on the verbal attack, even following him out of the business.
“I was shaken. I felt persecuted and that he was religiously profiling me,” said Diveroli.
“The employee is extremely aggressive toward Mr. Diveroli,” said Jose Baez, attorney for the alleged victim.
“You can see very clearly in the video that the Dunkin Donuts employee is the aggressor. That he continues to taunt him after Mr. Diveroli has locked himself inside his vehicle,” said Jasmine Rand, attorney for the alleged victim.
They said Dunkin offered Divoroli a free cup of coffee for his trouble.
Tuesday, a spokesperson for the coffee giant responded with the following statement:
“We have zero tolerance for any type of discrimination, and the language used by the former employee is unacceptable and not reflective of our brand. The franchised employee was terminated last week.”
Attorneys for Diveroli said that’s not enough and that racial sensitivity training for all employees must come next.
“Clearly, Dunkin Donuts didn’t make it clear to their employees that they are not permitted to use these racial ethnic slurs, and they clearly did not provide for Mr. Diveroli’s safety that day,” said Rand.
Tuesday morning, the attorneys for the victim said they are taking legal action against Dunkin Donuts.
Alton Rice, the employee who was involved in the verbal altercation, rejects Diveroli’s account and asserts that Diveroli used homophobic insults as soon as he walked inside the business.
According to Rice, Diveroli had a history of being unkind to him, and he was merely “matching” that energy.
Rice asserts that she is not prejudiced against Jews or any other minority, telling NBC Miami “a brown queer, I am. I have no right to make fun of anyone in this society, and I don’t have any preconceived notions about things like color, gender, or anything else.”
