Encountering a rude customer while working at a restaurant is to be expected. But what’s not to be expected is someone openly throwing around racial slurs to employees.

This 15-year-old food runner found herself dealing with that very thing after serving a table of older women.

At first, she wasn’t sure if she actually heard right. However, when the same woman doubled down and did it again, the teenager snapped and fired back immediately.

Just when she thought things couldn’t get worse, her manager took the customer’s side.

Let’s check out why this confrontation left the teen questioning whether she crossed a line.

AITA for talking back to a customer and my manager at my work?

I’m mixed (black/white), light-skinned with black features and hair. It’s pretty obvious that I’m mixed.

Anyway, I (15F) work at a restaurant. I work as a food runner (I haven’t been trained to serve yet). I bring food to the tables that order it, and it’s pretty easy.

On this day, I was bringing out the table’s entrees. There’s 3 old (white) ladies there.

They all say thank you, and I start to leave, and I hear one of them say, “I thought that ****-****** would mess up and drop our food all over the floor.”

When the woman says it again, she refuses to stay quiet.

I was shocked, and I honestly thought that I had heard her wrong. I didn’t say anything.

I go back inside, and after a while, the chef finishes that table’s main course. I took it out, and when I was almost there I realized that it was the same table.

I try to pass out the food quickly, but while I’m doing so, the same lady says, “You’re very capable for a ****-******.”

I told her to shut up, that she was being racist and rude, and that she had no right to say that to me. I told her that the level of racism that she was displaying was almost cartoonish. I also told her to go to ****.

Sadly, the manager took the customer’s side.

She immediately yelled back at me. Of course, it was something else racist, that I was being a ******* *******, and that young people are always so sensitive. Then, she said it’s against her First Amendment rights to not be able to say ******.

My manager came out because she heard yelling. My manager placated the lady and brought me to her office. She reprimanded me and asked why I was saying rude things to customers.

I told her that she was calling me the * word and was being racist. My manager gave me a pass due to the circumstances, but told me that I can’t talk like that to customers and the way that I went about it was by being an *******.

I get that I shouldn’t have said that and I was caught up in the heat of the moment.

AITA?

Wow! The absolute nerve of that lady!

Let’s see what the people over at Reddit think should happen.

This person calls it was it was.

Such a true statement!

The manager definitely should’ve done something more.

It was definitely racism.

No matter their age or how they were raised, those ladies should’ve known better than to talk to anyone like that, especially a child!

Could the teen have handled the confrontation differently? Sure. But expecting anyone to quietly accept this behavior without acting emotionally is just nuts.

And honestly, the manager deserves some criticism, too. Allowing these women to get away with it once, leaves the door open for them to do it again. And that’s just not acceptable.

The customer started the whole thing, and the teen just reacted to the unfair treatment. So, she shouldn’t feel bad because she’s not to blame.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a cashier who was on break when she was physically dragged back to the register by a customer.