#Man says he was fired from Taco Bell for wearing ‘Black Lives Matter’ mask

An Ohio man said in a now-viral video that he was fired from his Taco Bell job after refusing to take off his “Black Lives Matter” face mask last week.

Denzel Skinner, 29, who worked at a Youngstown Taco Bell restaurant for eight years, was fired on June 8, he said.

“This is crazy. All because I got a Black Lives Matter mask on that I’m losing my job,” Skinner said in the Facebook Live video, which has since been viewed 32,000 times. “We can wear any type of masks.”

In the beginning of the livestream, posted the day of his firing, an unidentified woman approaches Skinner in his car outside the restaurant and can be heard telling him that the masks need to be plain.

“You can’t bring politics into the building,” she added.

“Bro, I’m not bringing politics in, this is what I’m standing for,” Skinner shot back. “Like how is this considered politics?”

Skinner told WFMJ last week that masks became a requirement for employees on May 4, and the notice “didn’t have any fine print on it. It just said we have to wear a mask.”

He told WKBN that he wore the cover because the surgical masks provided to employees make it difficult to breathe when it is warm — and to make matters worse, the restaurant’s air conditioning recently broke.

So he decided to switch to the Black Lives Matter face mask, which was easier to breathe through.

“It just makes it hotter with that [surgical] mask on,” Skinner said.

A manager told him to take it off, but he refused and headed for the door, according to the report.

He was then told if he walked out he would be fired — and that’s what happened, the outlet reported.

Skinner said he wore the mask as a way to speak up following the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minnesota, and the protests that ensued nationwide. Someone made the mask for him, he said.

“If the governor and governments are requiring us to wear masks, we should be able to wear any type of mask that you want,” he told WFMJ. “And not only that, I still want everyone to believe that we still need justice for what is happening in this world and people need to be held accountable for whatever mistakes that they make. Black lives are going to always matter. Not just when some people want it to matter. It will always matter.”

Taco Bell told USA Today Thursday that its chief people officer and parent-company Yum!’s chief diversity and inclusion officer spoke with Skinner last week to “apologize and discuss the situation.”

“Our goal is to ensure our policies are inclusive and keep our team members and customers safe,” the statement said. “While our policies at restaurants do not prohibit Team Members from wearing Black Lives Matter masks, we are working to clarify our mask policy so this doesn’t happen again.”