Two days after President Donald Trump referred to Somali immigrants as “garbage,” a white Cinnabon employee in Wisconsin was captured on video calling a Somali man a “n-gger” after mocking his wife about her hijab.
“I am racist, and you are a n_gger,” said the 43-year-old woman on Thursday, December 4, who has been identified as Crystal Wilsey.
“I am racist, and I’ll say it to the entire world,” Wilsey said as the Somali woman recorded. “Don’t be disrespectful.”
Wilsey was fired hours later from the Cinnabon in Ashwaubenon after the Somali woman sent the video to her cousin, who posted it online. It immediately went viral, with viewers tagging Cinnabon.
“We’ve seen the disturbing video from the Cinnabon bakery in Ashwaubenon, WI, and we do not condone this behavior,” Cinnabon said in a statement to the media.
“The former employee was immediately terminated by the franchise owner. Their actions do not reflect our values or the welcoming experience every guest deserves.”
Meanwhile, a GiveSendGo fundraiser has surfaced online on behalf of Wilsey, claiming she was the victim of “intimidation” from the Somalian couple.
The fundraiser was launched by a man named Tom Hennessy, whose relation to Wilsey is not mentioned, but he has raised more than $65,000 as of this writing, with a goal of raising $109,110.
Two Somali customers decide to make her shift hell with intimidation.
Instead of banning the offenders and backing their employee, Cinnabon fires Crystal to keep the nons happy.
We’re not letting this slide. Funds go to making sure Crystal lands on her feet after this betrayal.
No White person should lose their job for refusing to be harassed by Somalians.
Watch the video below, followed by Trump’s racist comments about Somalis made two days earlier.
Online Backlash
Another fundraiser was posted on GoFundMe on behalf of the Somali couple by Sabrina Osman, who says she is the cousin of the Somali woman recording the video, and who was the first to post the video on her TikTok channel.
This is how Osman described the incident on the GoFundMe:
My cousin and her husband (Black Somali Muslim couple) were out shopping and decided to stop at Cinnabon for a quick treat.
As soon as they walked in, they could tell the atmosphere was not welcoming at all because of this workers facial expression and attitude.
My cousin ordered the Caramel pecan cinnamon roll, and when the lady was squeezing the Caramel, she hardly put any. Then my cousin asked her if she can put some more because it’s not enough. The Caramel appeared to be running low and my cousin asked are you running low. Don’t you have anymore ?
The worker then said she would warm it up a little because she didn’t want it to be hot and hurt herself. Then she “You could see me squeezing it through that witch-craft bandana you’re wearing on top of your head” basically referring to my cousins hijab…….
And that’s when my cousin pulled out her phone and started recording….
My cousin called me crying after this incident.
But that fundraiser has only raised $714 as of this writing.
Wilsey has not mentioned the incident on her Instagram page, where she has 739 followers with 126 posts, but she has received an onslaught of criticism on the page.
“So happy you lost your job, you obviously need help. I really hope you get the help you need, and broaden your horizons,” one of the comments says. “The people you hate are not your enemy and never have been. Your government and the education system has let you down. And possibly your parents as well, given the language you used in that video. I wish you the best of luck, love, and light.”
“Why are white supremacists always the least supreme whites?” another person wrote.
A mugshot posted on Recently Booked shows a mugshot of Wilsey, saying she was arrested in February 2022 in Erie County, Ohio, on three charges of child endangerment and operating a vehicle while impaired, but a search through the online court system of Erie County in Ohio does not show any records for her.
Like many videos that have surfaced online this year, Wilsey’s actions appear to be motivated by Trump, who referred to Somalis as “garbage” during the Dec. 2 Cabinet meeting, where he fell asleep to the mockery of the world.
“We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” Trump said in reference to Somali immigrants in Minnesota, where more than 108,000 residents are of Somali descent.
Trump specifically targeted U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who came to the U.S. as a Somali refugee, stating, “Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage.”
A federal jury in Minneapolis convicted the leader of the now-defunct nonprofit Feeding Our Future and an associate in March for orchestrating a massive scheme that siphoned off $250 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds.
According to a 2022 federal indictment, the organization exploited a long-standing federal program meant to feed low-income children, billing the government for thousands of meals a day that were never served. Prosecutors say emergency rule changes made during the 2020 lockdowns weakened oversight and created an opening for the fraud to flourish.
By late November, 78 people had been charged, and 50 had been convicted in connection with the scheme.
Although the accused ringleader is white, many of the defendants are Somali Americans — most of them U.S. citizens, a fact that has intensified scrutiny from the Trump administration toward the broader Somali community.