A White Manhattan woman, who was filmed calling a Black bakery worker the N-word after she was refused service for not wearing a face mask, justified her use of the derogatory term by claiming she’s “from a generation that grew up on hip-hop and rap music.”
Prior to the recent host of explanations Stephanie Denaro gave PIX11 on Wednesday, she had earlier defended her actions by claiming she has biracial kids. In the video of the incident which occurred at the Davidovich Bakery in Manhattan on Sunday, Denaro is seen having an argument with a security guard who informs her she won’t be served by the employee if she doesn’t wear a face mask.
Visibly upset, Denaro asks, “Why? ‘Cause he’s a b***h a** n****r, is that why?”. Startled customers who hear her comments are heard chastising her, but she shows no remorse, saying: “Oooh, that’s what he is.”
When the security guard reiterates she has to leave, she is heard saying: “That’s what he is. I just said it. You heard it.”
“It doesn’t affect me that you’re not going to serve me cause you’re a b***h,” she adds. When the customers tell her to stop using the racist term, she reiterates she can call him whatever she wants.
After an irate customer tells her she’s “White trash” and “disgusting”, Denaro replies: “Oh, I’m white trash because I have black kids?”. Denaro was in the company of her biracial children during the incident.
Responding to the backlash she received after the video went viral, Denaro, in the PIX11 interview, denied using the racial slur and claimed the term she used was the one “people of all different ethnicities and races use.” She also said her kids’ Black father uses the word in their presence.
“Is it ok if their father [uses that word] when he’s talking about people he knows?” she asked. “It doesn’t matter that the children are hearing it.”
In a separate interview with the New York Post, Denaro doubled down on not using the N-word even though the video recording proved otherwise. “I didn’t call him the N-word,” she claimed. “I called him a term to describe his behavior.”
The bakery employee Denaro abused, however, expressed his dismay at her claims. “Honestly, I really don’t know where that response comes from,” he told the news outlet. “I think that over a million people have seen the video and as it states in the video, she actually said those words …”
“I feel like it’s an insult to everybody.”
Meanwhile, Denaro, who earned the nickname “Bakery Karen” following the incident, is a well-known avid Trump supporter and anti-masker. She has reportedly been spotted at anti-mask and anti-vaccine demonstrations. In one of such events, she was photographed with her biracial toddler.
In an Instagram post, Denaro claimed she was unable to wear a mask because she suffered from “medical conditions”, adding that the rules surrounding the wearing of the mask were “unconstitutional”, the New York Post reported.
