A Spanish minister described the behavior as an act of racism.
Rabat – A video of a Spanish barista denying service to a group of Moroccans at a Spanish restaurant has gone viral on social media.
The video documents the moment when a Spanish employee at a Pans & Company restaurant in Spain’s Girona region, near France, refused to serve three young people of Moroccan origin.
The conversation in the video is primarily in Spanish. But at one point in the exchange, a Moroccan man says in Darija (Moroccan Arabic), “I swear I will film that.”
Speaking in Spanish, one of the young men says, “This coffee is for everyone.”
“This is the first time I’ve come here,” one of them says, explaining he is from an area north of Barcelona called Manresa.
The employee argues, “There are a number of people who [we don’t let in]. I’m not going to serve you coffee because my boss doesn’t want to,” she said.
Discriminació racista fa uns minuts al @PansandCo d l’estació dl #TAV de #Girona negant-se a servir cafè a persones joves racialitzades. No és un cas aïllat i ens neguem a normalitzar-ho. Ho denunciarem. @consumcat @girona_cat @adif @renfe què hi penseu fer? #NiUnEspaiAlRacisme pic.twitter.com/0uuNfJDuD2
— Espai Antiracista (@EAntiracista) December 23, 2019
El Pais reported that the employee said her supervisor saw the three men through the cafe’s cameras and had warned employees not to give them service.
“Pans & Company has denied in a statement that customers have been discriminated against because of their race or origin,” added the Spanish news outlet.
The company, however, said it would open an internal investigation.
ESPAI Antirracista, an anti-racism association in Girona, released the video on its Twitter, warning the cafe that it would report the act.
Spanish Minister of Labor, Social Affairs, and Family Chakir El Homrani, himself a Spaniard of Moroccan origin, has described the move as “intolerable.”
On his Twitter, the minister said: “Not serving a client because of their origin is called racism.”
La lluita contra el racisme és imprescindible per construir un país sense ciutadans de primera i ciutadans de segona. Cal reconèixer feina de @bcn_ajuntament en aquest àmbit i també del @govern. Bona iniciativa avui, @ChakirelHomrani 👇 https://t.co/zWhd1yewXb
— Jaume Asens (@Jaumeasens) December 24, 2019
