Aramark fires Phillies snack vendor for white nationalist views

A few weeks ago, Liz Roscher wrote a piece on a snack vendor at Citizens Bank Park, Pistachio Girl, and the PR nightmare that her vocal support of white supremacist politics was for the Phillies organization. It begged the question of how fans were supposed to go to Phillies games knowing that someone like that would be selling them ballpark food.

Now no one has to wonder, because Pistachio Girl has been relieved of her position. Aramark, the company that handles food service and staffing for the Phillies and Citizens Bank Park, fired her last week. Aramark released a statement about the firing to Philly.com.

“A core Aramark value is treating everyone with integrity and respect always. That includes respecting our associates’ right to privacy and dealing with personnel matters confidentially. We can only confirm that the individual asked about is no longer employed after publicly connecting our company to views that contradict our values.”

There was really no chance that Aramark could continue to employ her after she made her beliefs so public, since they’re abhorrent and explicitly against the policies of diversity and inclusion that many companies have in place. Additionally, she was using her position as a somewhat notable Phillies ballpark vendor to amplify her disgusting positions, which was probably extremely problematic for both the Phillies and Aramark.

It is likely that she’ll attempt to pursue legal action (as she has hinted at in the Philly.com piece), but it is unlikely that this will yield any results. As many people so frequently misunderstand, the First Amendment only protects free speech from government persecution. A private company is under no obligation to continue to employ someone who espouses racist, anti-semitic beliefs.

The Good Phight commends Aramark for doing the right thing and not tolerating intolerance.