One of the first rules in business should be, don’t drop N-bombs around your customers.
That weaponized language is rarely acceptable in any situation, but for a business owner to text the slur at a customer, you’ve got to wonder what the hell the entrepreneur was thinking.
So, I asked.
Last week, a Facebook storm broke out in the Valley when Holyoke-based landscaper Dave Mansfield, 37, texted client John Epstein on Dec. 3., “No offense but I’m done working for you. You have a Bernie Sanders fucking banner on your garage! You might as well be a fucking n—–!” — and Epstein posted a screen grab of the exchange on Facebook. He captioned the post, “I need a new landscaper.” One can easily imagine how a text message that began with a “no offense” and ended with what is arguably the most offensive curse word of all time — sealed with the middle finger emoji — was not well received.
Facebook user Angela Gerhard — seeing Epstein’s post and attached screenshot — made a mashup of the shot with the information available on Mansfield via Google, and posted it. The resulting post, which included his photo, number, and address, went viral over the weekend and continued to garner comments and shares into the work week. “Apparently he is a creep and a racist,” said one Facebook commenter. To date it’s been shared 273 times. Even the mayor of Holyoke, Alex Morse, weighed in with a post on Epstein’s page: “No one should support his business, we should organize a boycott. That is unacceptable and I’m ashamed he is here in Holyoke.” Many Facebook commenters said they wrote bad reviews on Mansfield’s Yelp page. “Left a 1-star review on his business FB page,” wrote another commenter. “Haters gonna hate, but people are free to vote with their wallets as well. This guy is a loser.”
Mansfield, ball’s in your court.
“Everything that’s bad in my life has come from alcohol,” Mansfield said, referencing his history with problem drinking, which includes an arrest for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol on Aug. 27 2014 in South Hadley — an incident, the police report notes, in which Mansfield repeatedly used racial slurs. “I’ve been kicked out of every bar in Holyoke.”
Mansfield said he and Epstein have debated politics throughout their business relationship. They come from opposite sides of the political spectrum with Epstein on the Bernie train and Mansfield backing Donald Trump. But on the day he sent the text to Epstein, Mansfield said he was drunk and upset. He says he’s not racist, that drinking brings out the “word vomit” in him. And the night he texted Epstein, that word vomit wasn’t contained to the phone exchange. Mansfield went on Facebook and defended the political side of his statement.
In one thread, he wrote, “Most of you fucking liberal losers can [sic] afford me anyways!”
When the Advocate caught up with Mansfield on Dec. 9, he said that he didn’t remember the conversations he’d had on Facebook when he woke up the following morning — until the calls started pouring in.
“I should have never used that word,” said Mansfield, adding that he was trying to say that Sanders is a “low-life” and that he should have chosen “pinhead” or “terrorist” instead. “It was a mistake and I do apologize for it, but I still don’t like Bernie Sanders.”
Mansfield told the Advocate that he received so many phone calls following the spread of the post, which contained his phone number, he disconnected his phone.
“People were calling me all weekend,” he said. “They were saying ‘the Bern’s gonna get you’ and ‘feel the Bern’ and all that. I’ve gotten a lot of positive, too — people saying ‘I hate Bernie, too.’”
Now Mansfield is working on his sobriety. On Dec. 14, he said he hadn’t had a drink since the night of the text and that he’s been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.•
Contact Amanda Drane at adrane@valleyadvocate.com.
