The fired Cinnabon worker captured on video allegedly calling a Black couple an anti-Black slur has an almost $149,000 crowdfunding campaign and counting. The couple has one too — for $15,000. The platform hosting the worker’s campaign has drawn derogatory comments about the couple — and it’s not the first time.
GiveSendGo, a crowdfunding platform that hosted the controversial donation campaign for Kyle Rittenhouse, has entered the national conversation once more this year for hosting the worker’s fundraiser. Co-founder Jacob Wells hasn’t directly responded to questions about the campaign, but made posts on X, asking other users if his platform should be hosting the campaigns.
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“So you are saying we shouldn’t take the campaign down,” Wells questioned in one post.
The platform has stood apart from GoFundMe in allowing controversial campaigns for people’s legal funds such as Luigi Mangione, who’s accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and numerous people who were charged for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
According to GiveSendGo’s 2023 990 Form filed with the IRS, the platform has supported families affected by the Uvalde mass shooting, chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio and those affected by numerous natural disasters.
Wells’ questioning people about the stance of the worker’s fundraiser comes months after he defended a campaign that had a similar media frenzy. In that one, video captured a mom who appeared to call a child anti-Black slurs for allegedly taking something from a diaper bag.
Wells told Minnesota television station KTTC in May that the conversation about “toxic, hard” ideas needs to be brought to the forefront in order to address them as a culture.
“Our mission is to share the hope of Jesus through crowdfunding,” he told the station.
Cinnabon confrontation goes viral
According to Sabrina Osman on GoFundMe, who claimed to be the cousin of the Wisconsin Somali couple, the interaction started between the worker and Farhia Ahmed on Dec. 5 at the Bay Park Mall in Ashwaubenon.
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GiveSendGo started in 2015 to help fund people’s campaigns and allow for prayer donations.
Ahmed and her husband are Black Somali and Muslim, Osman wrote. They stopped at the Cinnabon and ordered a caramel treat. Ahmed requested that the worker add more caramel and asked if the location was out of stock. Their interaction intensified when the worker allegedly told the couple she would warm the caramel up a bit and then called Ahmed’s hijab a “witch-craft bandana.”
Videos of the interaction later showed the worker in the video saying that she’s a racist and calling the group an anti-Black slur several times. She raised her middle-fingers to a camera and told the group they are evil.
Cinnabon, in comments it shared on its official social media pages, confirmed the person was an employee at the Wisconsin location and was fired immediately by the franchise owner.
“Their actions do not reflect our values or the welcoming experience every guest deserves,” the company wrote.
GiveSendGo campaigns get mixed reception
The fundraising platform is no stranger to hosting crowdfunding campaigns that have drawn swift pushback and sometimes praise.
GiveSendGo distinguishes itself from other platforms, it said, by not charging campaigns, giving back directly to fundraisers and allowing people to send prayers in lieu of monetary help. It has built up Mangione’s legal fund; supported the family of Thomas Jacob Sanford, who is suspected of killing four people and injuring eight others before setting a Michigan Mormon church ablaze; and a growing number of medical needs or memorials.
Offensive comments floods worker’s campaign
Several people online criticized the Minnesota mom and GiveSendGo for the fundraiser, including the Anti-Defamation League, which said in a May release that “white supremacists, antisemites and racists” were supporting the mom. The ADL classified GiveSendGo as a “prominent facilitator of extremist crowdfunding.”
“The comments and donation names included a wide variety of racial slurs against Black people, white supremacist and Nazi symbols, and calls for the killing or deportation of non-whites and Jews,” the organization wrote. Dozens used their donation comment to leverage antisemitic conspiracy theories.”
Wells said the company turned comments off on her page, but they’ve since returned with one urging a “need to eradicate this culture” and usernames promoting white supremacy. One person named Adrian Alejandre donated $10 and added “14 Words and the 4th Reich,” a white nationalist slogan David Lane coined to help spread his racist ideology, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Similar derogatory comments are on the fired Cinnabon worker’s page.
In one comment, a person named Frank T. donated $10 and wrote, “Thank god we are finally starting to stand up to these imported terrorists who hate America and all we stand for. God bless you Crystal for having the courage most of don’t have when dealing with these leftist lunatic terrorists who have taken over our country.”
Other comments spoke of the couple’s perceived religion — Islam — and said it’s not safe for women, children or for it to have a presence in the U.S. A number of other donations comments congratulated the worker for her actions in the video.
Osman’s GoFundMe campaign created for the couple is scant with comments, only attracting one from a “YT” who donated $20 and said “We can’t let indecency win!”
