INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
After he was fired, Maurice Rucker said he was named 'cashier of the month' in July.After a man last Thursday approached the checkout at a
Home Depot in Albany, New York, staff member Maurice Rucker asked him to leash his dog
That's when the man exploded.Rucker, a 60-year-old black man, claimed he was fired Tuesday after defending himself from a customer who, he
told the Union Tribune, went on a racist tirade
But after the news media covered his story, the company changed its mind.The customer allegedly responded to Rucker's request with insults
"'If [Donald] Trump wasn't president, you wouldn't even have a job,'" the customer said, according to Rucker's retelling to NBC affiliate
"You're from the ghetto, what do you know"Rucker, who did not respond to a request for comment, said he asked the man to leash his dog so
he'd be in compliance with store policy.The man replied with expletives until Rucker decided he had enough."You're lucky I'm at work,
because if I wasn't you wouldn't be talking to me like this," Rucker said he told the customer, according to TimesUnion."I'm a black man,
and I have dealt with all levels of racism all my life," Rucker told Times Union columnist Chris Churchill
"I am not going to accept racist behavior at work, home, the streets or anyplace else."Five days later, he was terminated from Home
Depot."Firing a black man for defending himself seems unfair," Rucker told Churchill, adding that he had been with the company for 10 years
and was named 'cashier of the month' in July
Churchill ended his column opining that, "The cliche is wrong
The customer is not always right."After Rucker's firing, Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes told WNYT that the "problem" was that Rucker
had not asked a manager to handle the situation."We're appalled by this customer's behavior, but we also must require associates to follow
proper protocol to defuse a situation for the sake of their safety and the safety of other associates and customers," Holmes said.By Friday,
the company had changed its tune, telling The Washington Post that it had "taken another look at this" and was offering Rucker his job
back."Our concern was that he didn't disengage and alert management about a customer confrontation," spokesman Matthew Harrigan told The
Post in an email.Harrigan would not to say if Home Depot planned to provide Rucker backpay.(Except for the headline, this story has not been
edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
