Racial Slur In Bed-Stuy Butcher's Store Sparks Arrests, Protests

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN – A Bed-Stuy butcher's shop has fired a worker accused of calling his customer "mono," which means monkey in Spanish, and has agreed to meet with protesters, four of whom were arrested over the weekend, according to activists and police.

Owners of Sagal Meat Market at 1274 Broadway have agreed to meet with National Action Network representatives Wednesday to discuss the Jan. 2 incident in which Demba Kane, 50, came to pick up his order and was told, “aquí mono.”

"That means 'Here, monkey,'" Kane says in a Facebook video, posted on Jan. 3, that has since been seen by almost 30,000 people. "He called me monkey yesterday."

Patch was not immediately able to reach the store's owner, whom state records identify as Lenin Sanchez, but a man named Sagal Fernandez issued an apology on behalf of Sagal Meat Market on Jan. 9, according to Brooklyn Daily Eagle's original report.

Fernandez, who identified himself as the owner, said in a Facebook comment that workers had not told him about the incident. The comment has since been deleted, Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported.

“We have ZERO tolerance for this type of behavior” Fernandez reportedly said. “We do take responsibility for not becoming more involved with our customers and staying aware of what is happening in the day to day interactions in our store.”

The video spurred a mass protest outside the Broadway butcher shop Saturday afternoon, during which two men and two women were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, police said.

Sagal Meat Market owners have since fired the worker and agreed to meet with National Action Network representative Rev. Kevin McCall on Wednesday to discuss demands for racial sensitivity training for workers at the 19 Sagal Meat Market locations in New York City, he told Patch.

"They think they fire the person and it goes away," said McCall, who hopes owners will also agree to host a town hall meeting during Black History Month. "They can be a model that other stores and corporations can follow.

"We can turn a moment of tragedy into a movement and a message."

Header photo courtesy of GoogleMaps