black baristas fired for playing trap song deemed vulgar by duke university official

Duke University vice president for student affairs Larry Moneta didn’t like the trap song that was playing at the university’s Joe Van Gogh location while he was there. Indy Week reports that on Monday, two baristas from the store had their contracts terminated. “On Friday, Moneta came in during an afternoon rush. The baristas had a habit of playing music from Spotify over the speakers, usually on playlists curated by the service. When Moneta walked in, “Get Paid” by Young Dolph was playing. The song’s titular refrain included the n-word, as Young Dolph raps, “Get paid, young n*gga.”

Britni Brown, who was at the register and in charge of the playlist that day, told the Indy Week that when Moneta approached her about finding the song offensive, she apologized and immediately turned it off.

Minutes later, Brown says she received a call from the owner of Joe Van Gogh, saying that the director of dining services had just called him about the incident.
On Monday, Brown and Kevin Simmons, another barista who was at store during the incident, “were called into Joe Van Gogh’s Hillsborough office and asked to resign”, according to Indy Week, who obtained a recording of the meeting. “Joe Van Gogh is contracted by Duke University, so we essentially work for them. And they can shut us down at any point.”, an HR from the store told them. “Duke University has instructed us to terminate the employees that were working that day”.

Whatever the officials think of the song, they didn’t have to get the baristas fired, they turned off the song right away when the official complained.

The New Observer has an interview of Britni Brown:

Protesters gathered at the coffee shop Wednesday afternoon in support of the two baristas: