Good Nature Market Worker Fired After Refusing Black Customers

NEW HAVEN, CT — An employee at Good Nature Market has been fired after refusing to allow a group of black men into the store while simultaneously allowing white customers in early Thursday morning.

In an Instagram post on Thursday, Terence Johnson detailed the encounter at the store on Broadway.

"As I tried to open the door, the worker told me they were closed," Johnson wrote in the post. "I said okay and walked away. As soon as I walked away, he let two white people in the store to get something to eat, but let me remind you that it's a 24hour store."

Johnson said he walked back to the store and tried to go inside, but the worker ran up to the door and said, "No, we are closed – you can't come in," as he was letting other white people enter the store, according to his post.

"He was giving my friends and I a hard time and cops were then called on us," Johnson wrote.

The group also filmed their conversation with police officers when they arrived. The group explained to an officer what had happened and said a white woman entered at the same time the owner told them they could not come in.

"What right don't I have that she has?" one of the men said in the video.

In the video, a store employee can be seen offering the group service once the officers arrived. The group declined to go in.

Yale University released a statement Thursday; Good Nature Market is an independent tenant of the Shops at Yale.

"While the circumstances were deeply upsetting and inexcusable, the situation was handled gracefully by the group and the YPD," the university said in the statement. "Yale stands by the men who experienced this discrimination and is grateful for the dignity they showed in a very trying circumstance."

According to the statement, the owner of the store "deeply regrets and apologizes for the action of its employee." The owner has said they will immediately begin an anti-discrimination training program for all employees at both of its locations.

"The Shops at Yale is committed to an open, welcome and inclusive environment for the entire community," the university said in the statement. "We will not stand for racial discrimination."

Johnson said he will not go to that store again.

"With all this going on, I strongly recommend anybody especially my black people to not to go back there again," he wrote in the post.