‘The support has been very overwhelming’, says Beckett student who was racially abused while working at Temple

Sabrina was called a ‘slave’ while working at the coffee shop


Leeds Beckett final year and ex Temple Coffee and Doughnuts employee Sabrina Said told The Leeds Tab that “the support has been very overwhelming,” following her Facebook post in which she detailed racist abuse she encountered while working at Temple.

Sabrina was called a “slave” by one colleague at the Leeds-based coffee shop, and faced regular racially-targeted abuse for around three months.

It has now also materialised that Temple’s co-owner regularly posted racist content online and even owned swastika-patterned socks.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Sabrina detailed how her experiences at Temple were not dealt with properly.

Temple issued an apology on Instagram before closing down all their social media accounts.

Sabrina told The Leeds Tab: “For a few months I’ve been trying to gather myself to say something but every time I just hold back.”

Sabrina did finally approach management to ask why they didn’t address the issue at the time.

Sabrina Said

“After the conversation I felt that staying silent and not speaking on the truth would not only keep hurting me but maybe others who have experienced similar issue.

“What stopped me before from saying something about my experience was that I was in doubt about whether it was a big issue in the first place as unfortunately we expect and experience behaviours like this very often in our lives.” Sabrina told The Leeds Tab

Since Sabrina posted on Facebook about her experiences, she’s received huge support from the online community.

“The reaction of my story is something I did not expect.

“The support has been very overwhelming and I’m not only speaking for me but to give others voices to speak up if they’ve ever faced injustice.”

Temple Coffee and Donuts have been contacted for comment.