No, Cafe Owner Didn’t Fire Black Waitress for Defending Elon Musk [Video]

A rumor claiming the owner of a cafe fired a waitress from her job after she spoke out in defense of tech entrepreneur Elon Musk circulated widely online in late 2024. According to the story, a man named Mr. Smith — the alleged owner of a restaurant named Poppy’s Cafe in an unidentified U.S. city and state — fired a Black server named Jada after she defended Musk in front of some of the establishment’s impolite customers.

For example, on Nov. 15, 2024, the owner of a YouTube channel named Top Master uploaded a nearly 16-minute video (archived) with the title, “Black Waitress Is Fired For Helping Elon Musk, Next Day She Gets The Shock Of Her Life!” By Nov. 18, the clip had received over 2.4 million views and 56,000 likes. It featured a thumbnail image showing a Black waitress scanning a credit card and Musk seated in the foreground.

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