It all apparently started when a customer tried to buy $5 worth of gas with his debit card, which didn't meet the store's required minimum for debit or credit card purchases. When he complained about it to the owner, that's when they started slinging slurs:
The chief complaint against the business arises from a Dec. 9, 2011, visit by Minister Jeffery Muhammad with a nearby Nation of Islam mosque.The way it sounds to me, this whole thing started when two people decided to act like fools instead of civilized adults. Racism? Yeah. The store owner is indeed guilty of vomiting more ignorance into the world. But the customer doesn't deny responding with his own racist retort. Fair play, my ass. Who said what first doesn't make it any more or less stupid. Everybody loses.
Muhammad said he wanted to buy only $5 worth of gas with his debit card because he felt the price at the store was too high. But the store policy required a $10 minimum debit or credit card purchases.
Muhammad said the owner made racial remarks when the complained about the policy.
"He said 'you're a slave and you all should go back to Africa,'" Muhammad said.
The owner, who declined to be interviewed at length, said Muhammad called him a "Chinaman" first and told him to go back to China.
Muhammad insists the owner's slurs came first, and the minister returned to the store Wednesday with at least two dozen supporters for the noontime protest.
