Viral Video of Firing by Racist Macy’s Manager Was a ‘Prank’

The claim: A Macy’s manager fired an employee for being late and told her, ‘We’re not running on Black people time’

A June 16 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows a group standing inside an elevator as two people, identified as a manager and an employee, start to argue.

The manager, a white man, tells the employee, a Black woman, that she is fired for being late. Although the woman says she had a family emergency and that her grandmother passed away, the manager insists that she get off the elevator and turn in her name tag and work items.

“Yeah, we’re not running on Black people time. Get off the elevator,” he says. “This isn’t the ghetto.”

The caption, which appears to have been written by the former employee, refers to the video as “proof this Macy’s manger is hella racist and have no heart for him to say this to me (sic).”

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Our rating: False

Macy’s confirmed in public statements and a direct statement to USA TODAY that the two people in the video were actors and not affiliated with the company. The woman, who has since been identified, also said in a video that the incident was a prank.

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