After a white woman in a suburb of Chicago went on a rant claiming that she was discriminated against by black employees at Michaels the day before Thanksgiving [1], a witness created a GoFundMe [2] to support the employees.
In the viral video [3], the woman can be heard calling the employees "animals" and screaming that she was mistreated by them. According to Jessie Grady, who recorded the incident, the woman's tirade began after an employee asked if she wanted to purchase a reusable bag for her larger items. The woman also said she was discriminated against because she voted for Donald Trump [4]. "And I voted for Trump, so there," the woman shouts. "What? You want to kick me out because of that? And look who won. Look who won."
Grady created the GoFundMe campaign to express her appreciation for the employees — especially applauding how calm the manager, who was the main target, remained throughout the entire encounter.
Since launching the crowdsourced campaign [5], Grady has raised over $20,000 for the store manager; the goal was $400. Grady wrote that she hoped to "do something to try to make it up to the employee who was the main target of this racist attack." In another message posted to the campaign, Grady wrote that the manager hopes to get her master's in psychology to become a guidance counselor. The outpouring of donations from nearly 1,500 people certainly illustrates how a community can transform a negative event into a hopeful one.
