Former Houston restaurant owner says he's 'not a racist' after calling employee N-word in text



less A woman said her boss, Danh Le (pictured), called her the N-word in a text message after she told him she was quitting her job as general manager of Pho Shack in the Houston area. Her ex-boss apologized for using the word and said he made a mistake. A woman said her boss, Danh Le (pictured), called her the N-word in a text message after she told him she was quitting her job as general manager of Pho Shack in the Houston area. Her ex-boss apologized for ... more Photo: Dominique Schneckenburg Photo: Dominique Schneckenburg Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Former Houston restaurant owner says he's 'not a racist' after calling employee N-word in text 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

A former Houston restaurant employee is speaking out after the owner admitted to calling her the N-word in a text message last week.

The former employee, Dominique Schneckenburg, had been the general manager at two Pho Shack locations in Sugar Land and Katy. She was at the Sugar Land location last Friday when she called one of the owners, Danh Le, and told him she wanted to quit.

She said everything was fine over the phone, but Le used the N-word in a follow-up message to Schneckenburg and another owner.

"F**k the N****r," Le said in screenshots of the messages obtained by Chron.com. "Don't like that b***h attitude anyways."

Le said he didn't intend to include her in the group message and acknowledged that he made a mistake by saying the word.

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Schneckenburg said she had worked at the Pho Shack for more two years. She had previously asked the owners to stop saying variations of the N-word around her because it made her uncomfortable, she said.

Aside from the occasional slip-up, she said the offensive language subsided.

Then, when she got Le's message, she said she flipped over a table in anger.

"When I read it out loud, it kind of smacked my head like 'Oh this is real,'" she said.

Le said he called Sugar Land Police later that night when he saw damage to the restaurant. Sugar Land police spokesman Doug Adolph said Schneckenburg wasn't on the scene when they arrived at 10:03 p.m.

Le said she flipped tables over and broke glass, but he ultimately declined to press charges, according to Adolph.

Le called police again the next day, reporting threatening text messages. Adolph said Le didn't specify who was sending the messages during the call. Police also didn't file an incident report because Le again declined to pursue charges, Adolph said.

Police responded by increasing patrols at the business.

"He simply called us and indicated he was receiving messages and he was concerned for his family and his safety," Adolph said.

Schneckenburg denied causing serious damage from one overturned table. She said she also never sent threatening messages.

"I never spoke to him after Friday," she said.

Le told Chron.com that he's "not a racist at all."

"If the employees at the Pho Shack knew I was racist, they wouldn't work there," he said.

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He added that he's no longer affiliated with the restaurant.

"I lost everything," he said. "I'm not ever saying that word ever again. I learned a very valuable lesson."

One black employee, Anthony Stewart, who's worked there for five months, said he doesn't plan to quit because of the incident.

In a three way conversation with Le and a Chron.com reporter, Stewart expressed his support for the former owner.

"He looks out for us," Stewart said of Le. "He's not racist at all."

Le said he never intended to hurt anyone in the black community.

"I just made a dumbass mistake, and I'm very sorry about it," he said.

Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com | NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here.