Tawana Brawley Syndrome

Remember Tawana Brawley? Here's a brief review from Wikipedia:

Tawana Glenda Brawley (born 1972) is an African-American woman from Wappingers Falls, New York, who gained notoriety in 1987–88 for accusing six white men of having raped her. 

The charges received widespread national attention because of her age (15), the persons accused (including police officers and a prosecuting attorney), and the shocking state in which Brawley was found after the alleged rape (in a trash bag, with racial slurs written on her body and covered in feces). Brawley's accusations were given widespread media attention in part from the involvement of her advisers, including the Reverend Al Sharpton... 

Yes folks, we have Miss Brawley to thank for giving us Al Sharpton.

Continuing...

After hearing evidence, a grand jury concluded in October 1988 that Brawley had not been the victim of a forcible sexual assault and that she herself may have created the appearance of such an attack. The New York prosecutor whom Brawley had accused as one of her alleged assailants successfully sued Brawley and her three advisers for defamation.

Long story short, she faked it. I won't discuss the motives she had for doing this, of which there are some potentially good ones. The facts are clear that she did fake it.

Now we have another sufferer of Tawana Brawley Syndrome (TBS). From the Washington Post:

...one visitor to the Austin [Whole Foods] location says he was not so enthusiastic about a recent trip. An openly gay pastor in the city where Whole Foods was founded has filed a lawsuit against the chain, claiming it sold him a cake that read “Love Wins F-g.”

But commenters on social media wondered why the pastor didn’t immediately notice the slur and accused him of altering the cake, as did Whole Foods, which countersued, claiming that the pastor made “fraudulent” accusations.

The alleged cake.

What I want to know is: Has anyone eaten this cake yet? Nowhere in the story is it mentioned what the cake tasted like, or if it was even edible? What if it isn't a cake, but rather some plastic cake toy that squeaks when you squeeze it? I swear, the quality of reporting at the Washington Post has really gone down since the Woodward and Bernstein days...

But I digress...

In a video posted last week, Jordan Brown of Austin’s Church of Open Doors said he ordered a cake from Whole Foods meant to read “Love Wins” — a slogan associated with the movement to legalize same-sex marriage. But when he picked up the cake on April 14, it had a quite different message. 

“When I got into my vehicle, I looked inside and saw they had wrote ‘Love Wins F-g’ on it,” Brown said, holding a receipt he said was from the cake. “You can see it nice and clear. Also, it is still in a sealed box. As you see, I have not opened up this box yet.”

You haven't opened it YET?! Wait much longer, and you can change that saying to "Mold Wins"...

Brown said he contacted Whole Foods to complain, and that an employee was at first “extremely apologetic.” However, the employee later called to say “his employee did not do this.” Brown was confused — and angry. 

“My question is: Who could have done this?” Brown said. “It’s still inside of a sealed box.” He added: “This is discrimination.”

This is where the story continues for a few more paragraphs, telling us how scandalized Pastor Brown is, how bad he feels, etc. 

Finally, we get to the other side of the story...

Whole Foods, founded in Austin in 1980, first denied writing the message. 

“The team member wrote ‘Love Wins’ at the top of the cake as requested by the guest and that’s exactly how the cake was packaged and sold at the store,” the company said in a statement. “Our team members do not accept or design bakery orders that include language or images that are offensive. Whole Foods Market has a zero tolerance policy for discrimination. We stand behind our bakery team member, who is part of the LGBTQ community, and the additional team members from the store, who confirmed the cake was decorated with only the message ‘Love Wins.’”

So the person who made the cake was homosexual? Ok, there is one hole in the story, on top of the fact the employee would have lost their job over this if it was true. (Not that Pastor Brown is concerned with this fact.)

“After a deeper investigation of Mr. Brown’s claim, we believe his accusations are fraudulent and we intend to take legal action against both Mr. Brown and his attorney,” the company wrote in a statement that laid out its case as follows: 

--Our bakery team member wrote “Love Wins” at the top of the cake, which was visible to Mr. Brown through the clear portion of the packaging. That’s exactly how the cake was packaged and sold at the store. Whole Foods Market has a strict policy that prohibits team members from accepting or designing bakery orders that include language or images that are offensive.
--Mr. Brown admits that he was in sole possession and control of the cake until he posted his video, which showed the UPC label on the bottom and side of the box.
--After reviewing our security footage of Mr. Brown, it’s clear that the UPC label was in fact on top of the cake box, not on the side of the package. This is evident as the cashier scans the UPC code on top of the box.

Get Arlen Specter on this! We have a "magic UPC code"! Oh wait, Specter is dead...and so is Pastor Brown's story.