Berkeley hot dog shop Top Dog has parted ways with an employee who attended this weekend’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Updated: An earlier version of this story stated that the employee was fired, but Top Dog now says he resigned.
The former worker, Cole White, was identified on social media holding a torch at the “Unite The Right” event, a rally against the removal of a Confederate monument in which attendees invoked KKK imagery and shouted “Jews will not replace us” and “white lives matter.” One person protesting the white nationalist rally, Heather Heyer, was killed when a car sped through a group of counter-protesters.
After Twitter users outed him as a rally participant, the company received numerous calls and emails complaints decrying the association. In response, Top Dog posted a sign seeming to indicate that White was fired, and condemning the actions in Charlottesville. However, the business has since sent a statement to KRON 4 news clarifying that White resigned.
White had been employed at the original, 1966-founded Top Dog restaurant — there’s another in Berkeley and one in Oakland — that’s adjacent to the UC campus at 2534 Durant Avenue. He also previously participated in the far-right protests that took place in Berkeley this spring.
Sign on the door of Top Dog on Durant Ave confirms Cole White is no longer employed by the chain pic.twitter.com/ROwAed2NOl
— Harini Shyamsundar (@hshyamsundar) August 13, 2017
Top Dog’s Facebook and Yelp pages, originally flooded with complaints about the restaurant’s association with White, have received backlash since his firing. “Better hire a good lawyer,” one Facebook user wrote. “You can't fire someone for their political beliefs so long as he was not representing your company.”
But a legal analyst for KPIX 5, Melissa Caen, doesn’t see the matter as illegal. “It’s not a First Amendment issue,” she said. “Remember, that only protects you from actions by the government based on your speech. It doesn’t protect you from actions by your private employer. It’s also probably not a discrimination issue, because going to a rally like this, participating like this, doesn’t make you a member of a protected class.”
Cole White, from California -- allegedly works at Top Dog restaurant in Berkeley pic.twitter.com/gxPvwQtAPw
— Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 12, 2017
Top Dog, as an institution, hasn’t shied away from political speech of its own. The restaurant’s website has a section called “Propergander,” devoted to Libertarian ideology directly imported from the Ludwig Von Mises Institute.
Here’s the full message Top Dog sent to KRON 4:
Since 1966, top dog has been devoted to serving quality hot dogs to the Oakland and Berkeley community at an affordable price to everyone who walks through our doors. Our employees and customers come from all backgrounds and beliefs. This has helped build the community within and around top dog and one of the reasons why we have been open for business for more than 50 years.
We pride ourselves on embracing and respecting all our differences and every individual’s choice to do as that person wishes within the boundaries of the law. We do not endorse hatred or any illegal conduct. It simply is not part of our culture.
We do respect our employees’ right to their opinions. They are free to make their own choices but must accept the responsibilities of those choices.
On Saturday, August 12, it came to our attention that one of our employees was involved in the recent ‘alt-right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Later that day we spoke with Cole White. During that conversation Cole chose to voluntarily resign his employment with top dog and we accepted his resignation.
There have been reports that he was terminated. Those reports are false. There have been reports that top dog knowingly employs racists and promotes racist theology. That too is false.
Individual freedom and voluntary exchange are core to the philosophy of top dog. We look forward to cooking the same great food for at least another 50 years.