Michigan Mechanic Says He Won’t Serve “F*cking Monkeys From The Ghetto,” Then Insists He’s Not Racist

Owner Of Ann Arbor shop responds to negative Yelp review with racist tirade saying he “doesn’t want blacks to call here”

The owner of an Ann Arbor, Michigan automotive shop is being crucified on Yelp for his racist tirade in response to a negative review of his facility.

As first reported by Mic, a customer recently complained that an employee of Whitney’s Tire and Auto Repair insulted her when she called the shop for a quote on tires, and the owner responded by using a string of racial epithets.

The customer, Madison Callanan of neighboring Ypsilanti, said she told over the phone that she “sounded f*cked up” and was asking stupid questions. When she asked the person at Whitney’s to stop treating her so disrespectfully, the person on the other line said he was “treating you like the dog you are.”

Callanan included all of these injustices in her Yelp review.

Shortly after, a user named Jim S claiming to be the owner and manager of Whitney’s responded to the negative review with increasingly disgusting remarks.

“Most reviews will be left by blacks from Ypsilanti because I don’t want them to call here,” Jim S. posted, “Nothing against them, but given an examination, I found a way to make a boatload more money avoiding them doing commercial water heaters. We stick to UofM related clients, a more appropriate fit given they reside near our shop. Ghetto folks need to stay in the Ghetto and not come to Ann Arbor.”

After initial outrage began to spread, Shalynn Renee Vaughn, a black Michigan student called the shop to ask the owner about his racist remarks, and Jim S. responded with a string of racial slurs in a recorded phone call shared with Mic.

“There’s no law against refusing service to ghetto people,” the owner told Vaughn. “I don’t serve f*cking monkeys, little f*cking primates.”

He was on Fox 2 before for a similar incident. He also told my father "Black folks can't afford to have stuff fixed" https://t.co/tz5fdTFEgz — wonder woman (@jaylabrenaeee) April 11, 2016

Nonetheless, Jim S insists that he isn’t racist and that it’s about “service” a common rationalization from racists to explain away their racism.

“Race has nothing to do with this, let me clarify,” Jim S told Mic. “What we’re trying to avoid is people who number one can’t afford service. I understand that a lot of people find racism to be the worst thing in the world.”

Since yesterday, the Yelp page for Whitney’s Tire and Auto Repair has been bombarded with negative reviews in solidarity against bigotry.