Aaron Schlossberg, the Manhattan lawyer who was filmed berating a midtown restaurant manager for allowing his employees to speak Spanish and threatening to call immigration, issued an apology today. But Twitter isn’t having it.
On May 15, Schlossberg went viral after his racist rant was posted to Twitter. “This is America!” he was seen shouting in a midtown Fresh Kitchen. “If they have the balls to come here and live off my money, I pay for their welfare. I pay for their ability to be here. The least they can do … is speak English.” (That assertion is factually inaccurate; undocumented immigrants are not eligible for public assistance.)
“My guess is they’re not documented. So my next call is to ICE to have each one of them kicked out of my country,” he continued.
Within hours, Schlossberg had been identified, additional clips of his abusive and racist behavior were posted, the Yelp page of his law firm was flooded with one-star reviews, his associate resigned, he lost his office space and the international media had picked up on the story. On Saturday, more than a hundred protesters showed up outside Schlossberg’s 60th Street apartment building, including a mariachi band.
This afternoon, Schlossberg posted a statement on Twitter and LinkedIn saying he was “deeply sorry” and was “not racist.”
— AaronSchlossbergLaw (@ASchlossbergLaw) May 22, 2018
Twitter did not find the apology genuine.
. Translation: “I’m sorry people who know what a racist dick I am were able to ID me. I got booted from my office and I’m afraid to go home. I want you to THINK I’m sorry and hope you won’t read between the lines to see that I’m not sorry for what I said, just that I got caught.”
— Diane Pavia (@diane_pavia) May 22, 2018
If you aren’t racist, why do you consistently go on huge racist rants? Why do you consistently harass people and call them racist names?
If this is an apology, it’s shit and it’s not accepted. You massive racist! ? ?
— Jo Phillips (@joglasg) May 22, 2018
You suggest you don’t want your money paying for their “welfare”. I don’t want my tax dollars protecting you. Find a rock and hide beneath it until you have a sincere change of heart. I hope you see and hear Mariachi bands in your dreams.
— Adrienne Nicodemus (@NicoEdCoach) May 22, 2018
Go fuck yourself.
— Colin Seeberger (@CMSeeberger) May 22, 2018
Late last week, other clips surfaced of Schlossberg expressing harassing and racist views in public.
In one video clip posted by tech consultant Willie Morris, which Morris said was recorded in October 2016, Schlossberg was seen berating Morris and calling him “a foreigner” on a Fifth Avenue sidewalk. The men had accidentally bumped into each other, and Schlossberg became abusive, Morris said. “What country are you from?” he asked Morris, and then said: “I’m going to call the police. You don’t run into me. I’m a citizen here, you’re not. You’re an ugly f***ing foreigner. F*** you.”
Morris said he was born in Massachusetts.
