1. Chili’s

UPDATE: I received an email response from Chili’s regarding the issue on January 2, 2017. They say the manager involved is no longer with the company and they are implementing additional training techniques to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

This is probably the most disgusting story I’ve heard of this year. Ernest Walker, a veteran, stopped by the Chili’s location in Cedar Hill, TX to take advantage of the franchise’s free meal offer to U.S. veterans and active duty service members. Unfortunately, things went south from there.

According to The Dallas Morning News, Walker said an elderly man wearing a Donald Trump shirt approached him and said he served in Germany and that “blacks weren’t allowed to serve there.” Walker, who is African-American, was donning his old Army uniform. The Dallas Morning News reported that the man walked to the back of the restaurant, a waitress came to pack up Walker’s food in to-go boxes, followed by a manager. Walker said he provided adequate service documentation per the manager’s request but that still wasn’t enough. Walker turned on his cellphone to record his interaction with the manager, in which the two went back and forth and the manager eventually took Walker’s leftover food away from him. The incident has since gone viral, sparking mass outrage from throughout the country. The Dallas Morning News reported that Chili’s and its parent company, Brinker International, apologized to Walker on the phone. In addition, Chili’s president, Kelli Valade, released a prepared statement on the incident, saying that Chili’s has “removed” the manager – notice it doesn’t say “fired.”

To me, that’s not enough. This incident has disgusted me to no end. I work in the public service sector and we were trained right from the start on how to treat our guests properly. If I, or any one of my coworkers, treating a guest like this manager treated Walker, I’m confident that we would have been fired. No questions asked. Chili’s has lost a customer, here, and I hope you will join me in this boycott effort.

2. Sport Clips

From disrespecting our veterans to helping our veterans, I want to give a shoutout to Sport Clips. The haircutting franchise has a campaign each year around Veterans Day called Help A Hero. On Veterans Day, customers can get a haircut and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to scholarships for veterans via the VFW. My local Sport Clips went a step further and held a gift basket raffle. In exchange for a certain donation amount, customers could enter their name in a drawing. Each gift basket had a variety of goods in it such as free haircut coupons, hair products and more. I donated and entered for one of the baskets. Guess what? I won! I got a free haircut coupon and about $40 in hair products. Beyond that, I felt amazing that I helped our veterans!

3. I Got A MacBook!

I did it! I finally got my first MacBook. In fact, I typed this post on it! I went with the brand new MacBook Pro that Apple just released and, yes, I got the Touch Bar model (why not?). That thing is slick! I’m still trying to figure out the quirks of MacOS after being a PC guy for almost 10 years but I’m learning pretty fast. So far, so good and I hope to post my review of this beaut of a machine soon.

4. Bruno Mars’ Tour

The talented Bruno Mars is hitting the road again and, guess what? He’s coming to Raleigh! Albeit not until October 2017, but I think I’m going to have to go see him. Especially since his new album is outstanding. I’m already counting down the days! Check out all the dates here.

5. Happy Ann’y, Space Jam

Rounding out this week’s post, I want to wish a Happy Anniversary to one of my all time favorite films: Space Jam. It’s crazy to think it’s now 20 years old. Man, where does the time go? 🙂

Thanks for Reading