Dunkin’ Donuts is in the news again, and it is not for a name change this time.
The Post-Standard reported that, on Oct. 1, a Syracuse Dunkin’ Donuts employee dumped water on a homeless man sleeping in a booth while a coworker filmed it to later post it on Facebook. The two employees involved were promptly fired, but not before the video went viral, receiving over 1 million views on Facebook.
First off, this kind of behavior is, and should forever be, considered unacceptable. Those who are homeless in America—over 1.5 million people—already have it hard because of all the ways current society disadvantages them. This man was trying to charge his phone to call his mom and did not deserve such an attack.
It was not funny and should never have been recorded. The workers’ actions are undoubtedly a sign of the lack of progress in today’s society—that we still readily laugh at those less fortunate, especially when they are suffering.
The outpouring reaction of viewers of the video has been support toward the victim, which is encouraging. However, the video was posted to get attention, and it can be argued giving the video more views is just validating such behavior. One of the worker’s apology video also received over 1 million views on YouTube, showing just how much social media is driving this conversation.
Spreading the word about this problem can help alleviate it, but some astute viewers may get flashbacks to Logan Paul’s terrible publicity stunt. History is repeating itself, but there is a way to stop it.
Perhaps the best way to approach stunts like this is not to give the videos and subsequent apologies plenty of views and coverage, but to instead do what a couple organizations and many other people through GoFundMe have done already: reach out and give back.
Glazed and Confused, another pastry chain, has given 1,000 donuts to the homeless in the Syracuse area. Dunkin’ workers in Syracuse plan to go to “Sandwich Saturday,” a weekly charity where volunteers build bag lunches for local homeless. A GoFundMe page for the man involved has already made over $19,000. These are the actions that should be celebrated and receive the attention and views the original video did.
Instead of sharing the video or telling all your friends about the terrible acts of those two workers with a “Shame on them,” why not volunteer at a local homeless shelter? Buy that man on the side of the road a hamburger. Donate to organizations like the Rescue Mission. It is actions like these that can help shift the social conversation so these kinds of attacks do not happen again.
