Backlash Over LI Pizzeria Protest

WANTAGH, NY — A rally planned Saturday to protest a Long Island pizzeria driver allegedly sending a racist text to a Black customer is facing backlash by some who question the event's purpose, since the owner fired the employee and apologized to the customer — but an organizer says the gesture was not sincere.

In an incident that was reported by various news outlets, including News 12 Long Island, last week, Lashae Jerry ordered from I Love Pizza in Wantagh and didn't leave a tip because the food came two hours late and Jerry received a text from the delivery driver calling her a racial slur. The incident was described in detail in a Facebook video posted by Jerry’s mother, Monique Hawkins. The video has since been taken down.

When told of the incident, the pizzeria owner fired the delivery man, offered Jerry a refund and apologized.

Shawn Farash, in a video on his Long Island Loud Majority Facebook page, questioned why Long Island Peaceful Protest and Long Island Black White Brown United Movement plan to rally outside the pizzeria Saturday, directing their ire at the pizzeria when its owner immediately addressed the issue, offered a refund to the customer, and apologized.

“What are you protesting? Do you know what you are protesting?” Farash asked. “Is this in your eyes — what we have talked about before — you know, systemic racism? How is this systemic? If systemic racism were still alive, this employee would still have a job because it would be accepted as a cultural norm.”

"I handled it the right way," said the pizzeria owner, who declined to identify himself in an interview Tuesday. He said he was aware of the rally and declined to comment further.

In a flyer posted to the protest groups’ Facebook pages, organizers state: "No one deserves to be treated this way. Join LIPP and BWBU as we rally outside the pizzeria to stand by this customer and show our support for them, and let the pizzeria know this behavior will not be tolerated."

When contacted for comment, Brandon Felton, a BWBU Facebook page organizer, told Patch he was not in the “business of attacking a good business.”

Felton, who reviewed the pizzeria owner’s demeanor in the video posted to Facebook, believes the pizzeria owner did the only thing that he could do and his actions were not sincere, so the rally will go on as planned.

“I do not want anyone going to that pizza parlor that is on the right side of history,” he said.

LIPP organizers did not respond to a request for comment.

The outspoken Farash, who has thousands of followers on social media, has had no qualms with chiming in on political issues in the past. During the presidential election season last year, the conservative influencer organized a series of MAGA car caravans across Long Island in support of now-former President Donald Trump, including one in Montauk that drew thousands of people.

Most recently, he organized Save St. Patrick’s Day rallies, as well as a “Make Andrew Go Away” rally in Ronkonkoma, directed at embattled Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who faces a series of allegations of sexual harassment.

Farash also takes issue with Saturday's rally flyer for leaving out the fact that the employee was fired.

“The shop did the right thing. What does it say about you, if you are protesting the guy who did the right thing?” he asked in the roughly 10-minute video. “You’re not elevating the Black community and achieving true equality in education with this. True elevation would come by celebrating the man who did the right thing, not trashing him.”

Felton dismissed Farash as a “troublemaker” and questioned why the pizzeria owner should be celebrated for his “numbness.”

He said the business will not get the support of black, brown, and white people who condemn the delivery man’s actions, but because Long Island is still very racist, people will continue to go there.

“He is going to get even more support than he ever had,” Felton said.

Felton said that there were plans for a counterprotest outside the shop, and he has received threats about moving forward with it.

Mike Peranio, who owns Vintage Sports Bar across the street from the pizzeria, told Patch the business in the neighborhood serves a diverse crowd and he has never heard a single bad word about the pizzeria in his three years there. He said that there is no way that a business owner can determine if an employee has “racial issues or not” and he questioned such an occurrence could be predicted.

“They are protesting when the employee was let go. It could happen to any [business] owner, but how can we know before it happens?” Peranio added.

The groups have been the subject of some angry feedback over the last few days, with angry commenters decrying the organizers of the protest for directing their ire at the pizzeria when its owner took the appropriate action by firing the employee. Some have called for dropping by to purchase pizza showing their support.

A story on Patch itself featured over 100 comments from readers, most of them directed at the rally organizers.

“So these folks are protesting over the alleged text from a pizza delivery guy who was fired? He was fired and the woman was offered a full refund .. so what are they protesting?” Wrote one person. “Sounds like a publicity campaign for yet another organization to garner contributions in the name of discrimination ........”

Another writes, “I'm sorry, but what more do they want from this pizzeria? They were offered a refund and the driver was fired (which he should have been). Seems like things were taken care of properly.”

In response to Farash’s post, one page follower writes: “They rather label a business racist than see that the business took the appropriate steps to correct the problem. The protest organizers clearly just want to keep hatred and [division] going.”

One woman questions, “Do you know if the fools running the rally even took the time to find out if the business owner fired the driver?”

Yet, another commenter responds: “Because apologies and doing the right thing isn’t enough anymore. They MUST ruin whoever they have deemed a deplorable.”

As Patch previously reported, Jerry was sent a text saying that "Black lives do matter but yours doesn't," and she was referred to as a "dumb n-----.” The text allegedly finished by telling her to get out of Wantagh, according to Hawkins’ video on Facebook.

Jerry told News 12: “I was upset, I mean I started crying ... I felt like it was discrimination.”

The outlet reported that the police contacted the district attorney's office about the matter. The district attorney’s office has not responded to a request for comment.