But what began as a small gesture soon turned ugly on Monday when the woman, for reasons that remain unclear, went from offering to pay for their lunch to harassing the troops and accusing them of stealing her money. One of the troops alleged the White woman, who has not been publicly identified, called the group the n-word multiple times at the restaurant in Lorton, Va.
The exchange, which was partially captured in TikTok videos recorded by one of the soldiers that have gone viral, caused the Army to announce this week that it had launched an internal review of the incident to gather more information on the woman and her motivations.
Joe Richard, a Fort Belvoir spokesman, condemned the woman’s “racially charged language” at the Black men.
“A view of the video will show the Soldiers maintained their composure and military bearing throughout this shocking incident,” Richard said in a statement to The Washington Post.
Joé Jeffers Jr., one of the service members, who was accosted by the customer and posted the clips to TikTok, summed up the experience in one caption: “I’m a U.S. Army soldier and I had my first encounter with a racist woman.”
The incident at IHOP comes weeks after a Black Army officer in Virginia, Lt. Caron Nazario, filed a federal lawsuit against police officers in Windsor, Va., for holding him at gunpoint and pepper-spraying and assaulting him during a traffic stop last December. The Nazario case, which led to the firing of one of the police officers, has triggered a civil rights probe from the Virginia attorney general. The fallout from the traffic stop in Windsor was a painful reminder to some Black troops and veterans in Virginia this month that even military service “is not going to save you in this country.”
At some point during their lunch Monday, the woman approached the four men and started chatting with them about life in the military, according to a statement from Fort Belvoir. After initially putting down $30 to help pay for their meal, she took $24 back before leaving, Richard said.
In a Facebook video posted after the encounter, Jeffers claimed that when the woman returned to the table, she called them the n-word twice and used a homophobic slur. Jeffers then began recording the scene on his phone.
The beginning of his TikTok video shows the antagonistic woman claiming the men took her money and calling them an expletive.
“Ma’am, please walk away,” Jeffers responded.
But instead of walking away, she proceeded to sit down next to Jeffers in their booth. Three of the soldiers started to leave, but stopped when they realized the woman had blocked Jeffers. “I can’t leave, Jeffers,” said one of the troops in the video.
When the woman did not allow Jeffers to exit the restaurant, another customer attempted to intervene. The White man, purportedly an Air Force veteran, asked the woman to leave, according to video.
“You’re making a problem,” he said to her, as he handed Jeffers’s patrol cap to him.
Then, the woman confronted the customer with obscenities, threatening to “drop” the man in a lunchtime fight at IHOP.
“You wanna go? You wanna go?” she said, according to video.
As a manager came over to help escort the woman out of the restaurant, video shows that she began yelling at customers, “Are you the thin blue line? Are you BLM? Are you antifa?”
Before the four soldiers returned to Fort Belvoir and reported the incident to their chain of command, Jeffers took to Facebook to recount what just happened, muttering, “This is America.”
“We were just four soldiers who said, ‘Man, let’s go to IHOP, we want some lunch,’” Jeffers recalled from inside his car. “And then we dealt with that.”
An IHOP regional official would not say whether local law enforcement was involved or if the woman has been identified. A request for comment from the Fairfax County Police Department was not immediately returned Saturday.
In a statement to The Post, an IHOP spokesman rejected the woman’s actions, saying what happened at the Lorton location goes against the company’s values.
“IHOP and its franchisees do not condone the statements made by the guest in this video, and will not tolerate racism, bigotry or harassment of any kind,” the spokesperson said. “For more than 60 years, we have strived to create a warm and hospitable dining experience for all guests, and this isolated incident is not reflected of that ongoing commitment.”
Elaine Baldwin, the mother of one of the soldiers at the IHOP, Jaime Crankfield Jr., told WUSA that her son was in tears and “didn’t understand why it happened and why people act like that.” Baldwin, an Army veteran who said she spent three tours overseas, noted to the outlet that the video “brings awareness to everyone about racism and issues in this world and here that we’re going to have to fix.”
“No one should have to be treated like that, especially soldiers,” Baldwin said to WUSA.
Days after the lunch, Jeffers returned to TikTok to thank people for their support. He said he hoped the woman was watching the video. Jeffers had a message for her.
“Whoever she is, if you’re seeing this, ma’am, it’s okay,” he said. “I forgive you.”
Alex Horton and Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.
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