We are a company that embraces diversity. We strive to model compassion and appreciation for each other. We are very proud of the courage of one of our employees. Our hope is that others will find inspiration in her example of compassionate and healing leadership. This is her story (via her Facebook post).

The past few days have been interesting to say the least. So I thought to share this story with you:

I was working on my laptop at Starbucks today for a few hours… minding my own business. A Caucasian male walks in. He immediately gets on his phone and decides its a good idea to circle around where I’m sitting. During his long and obnoxious walks back and forth, he was discussing on the phone (very loudly might I add) how Trump won the election. “Trump Won! Hallelujah! You know, Israel is going to get all of our support now. Trump is going to get rid of all of those… (too vulgar for Facebook.)” Nonetheless what he said offended me personally as a proud Hijabi Muslim-American. There was a Caucasian female college student sitting across from me. Once he started saying all of that stuff, we immediately made eye contact where I then rolled my eyes and smiled at her. She said “Well, that’s Knoxville for ya.” I shook my head and thought to myself, ‘What should I do? Should I get up and say something to this man or just keep quite. My ‘New Yorker’ in me was FIRING UP… But I decided to answer back a little differently.

The man decided to sit at a table behind me (still on the phone might I add). I discreetly went up to the clerk, handed him my card, and let him know that i’d like to pay for the mans drink when he comes up. I sat back down and continued my work. When the man’s company came, they both went up ordered their drinks, and the clerk pointed my way and let them know, “That young lady paid for your drinks”. They came up to the area I was sitting at and said whoever payed for our drinks, thank you! I answered and said “you’re very welcome.” Once he realized it was me… He nodded his head humbly and said thank you so much. I felt as almost he was ashamed at what he said because he believed I would answer to his hatred much differently. The girl sitting across from me looked up, smiled, and said “Wow, that was really nice.” I said to her, “That’s how you do it!”