Video: College student wants to buy meal for homeless man, but Popeyes manager refuses to allow sale — and police are called on student



A Georgia State University student tried to buy a meal for a homeless man from an Atlanta Popeyes, but a manager at the fast-food restaurant refused to allow the sale — and police even were called on the student.

The GSU senior, Jo Ortega, recorded the incident on video and posted it last month on TikTok, where it's been viewed over 5 million times, according to WAGA-TV.

What are the details?

Ortega told WAGA she was picking up a DoorDash order from the Popeyes near Ponce de Leon Avenue when she noticed a man who looked hungry.

Image source: WAGA-TV video screenshot

But when she tried to order him a meal, no dice.

According to Ortega's video, she was in a vehicle in the drive-through lane when she asked for a manager — who eventually appeared and refused the transaction.

"No ma’am, you can’t do it," the manager says.

"Why? He’s asking for food," Ortega protests.

"Ma’am, you can’t do it," the manager repeats before adding, "I don't ... care about you recording me, baby."

And that was that.

But then it got even worse. Police were called on Ortega.

Image source: WAGA-TV video screenshot

"At that moment I was terrified," she later revealed to WAGA. "I thought I was gonna get arrested. I was like, 'Maybe I should just call my family, and I might not be coming home tonight.'"

Image source: WAGA-TV video screenshot

Atlanta police confirmed to the station that officers responded to a call about a woman refusing to leave the drive-through, but police didn't do anything since Ortega didn’t break any laws.

Not only that, she told WAGA that officers complimented her.

"The officer pulled me to the side and was like, ‘I really thank you for doing that; thank you for buying him food. I appreciate that,’" Ortega noted to the station.

Common sense prevails

Ortega told WAGA that a store general manager soon was contacted, and he felt terrible about what happened and then let Ortega and the homeless man order anything they wanted that night for free.

"My name's Jazz and thanks," the homeless man was heard saying as he waved to the camera outside Ortega's vehicle.

Popeyes told the station in a statement that it's "committed to treating everyone with dignity and respect" and that it has "ensured all employees at this restaurant have been provided with retraining to help navigate a range of guest interactions, such as the situation highlighted in the video."

Ortega told WAGA she started an online fundraiser to help Jazz find permanent housing: "Oftentimes the homeless are treated like stray animals, stray cats. 'If you feed them, they’re gonna keep coming back, and we don't want them to keep coming back.' In all of this, I believe that people deserve to be treated like people."

Dizzying 27 alternate pronouns displayed on college business school application — along with an 'other' option



Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business features a program called WomenLead which "equips female students to excel in school, enter the workforce with developed skills, and find their place in leadership positions."

One might assume a program geared toward women wouldn't need much in the way of gender identifiers on its application form, but once you scroll down a little ways past boxes to input your last name, first name, and "nickname or preferred first name if different from your given name," the form asks "what pronouns do you prefer?"

And it's a smorgasbord.

Apart from box you can click for the seemingly obvious choice ("she," "her," "her," "hers," "herself"), there's an option we've been seeing quite a bit of for the last couple of years ("he," "him," "his," "his," "himself"). And then "they," "them," "their," "theirs," "themself." Alrighty, then.

But that ain't all.

If the latter choices don't pass muster with applicants, there are seven more groups of alternate pronouns to choose from that display a whopping 27 words of some sort, such as "ey," "xie," "hir," "vis," and "eirs."

The kicker? If none of those choices suffice, the application leaves a space at the bottom of the section in which hopefuls can list their "other" pronouns.

Don't ever say the application creators were not thorough.

What did WomenLead have to say?

Director of WomenLead Nancy Mansfield told Campus Reform the program "invites all students who meet the requirements regardless of gender."

The outlet said it also contacted Georgia State University for comment, presumably without success.

Anything else?

Indeed, readers of TheBlaze have traveled down this path numerous times. To wit:

  • A staff editorial for The Wellesley News, the student newspaper for Wellesley College, earlier this year called for the prestigious all-women school to edit its policies and language in deference to transgender and nonbinary individuals — most notably to stop calling students "women."
  • Last year a British police chief filmed a social media video stressing the importance of recognizing "International Pronouns Day" and said misgendering someone is a "form of abuse."
  • And also in 2019, even Merriam-Webster got into the act and added a new definition for "they,"a new definition for "they," reflecting increased usage of the word among those who identify as gender nonbinary.

Georgia State University’s Exclusion Of My Helicopter Pronouns From 50 Other Choices Is An Act Of Violence

I'm not a student at Georgia State University, but I'm offended anyway.