The Chicagoist will be launching later but in the meantime please enjoy our archives.

Chicago Bartender Fired For Posting Racist Comments On Facebook

By Samantha Abernethy in Food on Apr 2, 2012 9:40PM

2012_04_02_proof_facebook.jpg
An employee of Proof responds to Elizabeth's comments. Photo via 312DiningDiva
A bartender at Gold Coast club Proof was fired after posting a series of racist comments on Facebook about "one race of people." Jessica Elizabeth started a conversation with her Facebook friends saying, "wow so insane how one race of people can be so fucking incompetent and disgusting."

That's not even the worst of it. It devolved into a conversation in which she and her friends used incredibly offensive ways to refer to African Americans. The photo at right shows a fellow Proof employee taking Elizabeth to task for her comments. She was quickly fired.

Proof released the following statement:

Proof would like to confirm its belief in equality, fairness and tolerance to all our friends and partners. Sadly, on occasion, we are all exposed to ignorance and racism. We believe that by continuing to be true to our ideals and leading through our actions that each of us can be an agent for positive change.

Elizabeth has since taken her Facebook profile private. 312DiningDiva has screenshots of the full conversation. Warning: We can't even describe how incredibly racist this discussion is.

The incident also raises some First Amendment questions, since Elizabeth made the comments on her personal Facebook account. As you can see in the photo at right, it is implied Elizabeth was violating a company policy. Private or not, the comments are reprehensible.