Dairy Queen Shuts Down Restaurant After Owner Proudly Unleashes Racist Rant On Customer

#1

On Wednesday, January 4, Deianeira Ford, pictured here, thought she'd make a trip to Dairy Queen with her two young kids since they'd been so well-behaved.

#2

They stopped at the drive-thru at this DQ in Zion, Illinois, where her order got mixed up.

When she asked the restaurant's owner, Jim Crichton, to fix the order, he wouldn't. So she asked for a refund.

This is when he lost control. While he refunded Ford for the order, he also let loose a string of racial slurs directed at Ford, in front of her children.

Ford told The Washington Post, "He called me and children n; he said I can go back to where I came from."

#3 Shaken and disturbed, Ford called the police.

When the officer arrived and confronted Crichton, he was angry and pacing, but he didn't deny what he'd said.

In fact, according to the officer, "Crichton boastfully told me he would be happy to go to jail over the issue and proudly admitted to calling Ford a n. He added that he is ‘fed up with black people.'"

So disgusting.

#4 While Crichton's behavior was absolutely deplorable, there was little the officer could do.

So Ford took to Facebook.

In a now-deleted post, she described what happened and included the phone number and address of the Dairy Queen. She also called DQ headquarters.

Hours later, her post had been shared several thousand times, and Dairy Queen got wind of the incident.

#5 DQ denounced Crichton's behavior and said he would be required to undergo sensitivity training.

But that wasn't enough.

#6 On Friday, January 6, Dairy Queen announced that it was closing the Zion restaurant and revoking Crichton's franchise rights.

Dozens of people showed up to the Dairy Queen location in Zion to demonstrate in support of Ford Saturday, January 7, and it turned into a sort of celebration.

Ford told The Washington Post that she "was happy about the outpouring of support from community members" but that she's "still struggling to explain racism to a 3-year-old who doesn't fully understand what happened."