By Patrick Casey

There are many cancellable offenses in the land of the free. Expressing the wrong opinion on a multitude of issues – from immigration policy, to drag shows for children, to whether Kyle Rittenhouse deserves life in prison – is a surefire way to find yourself vilified and, quite often, unemployed. What’s worse is that the borders of wrongthink continue to expand, rendering it difficult to know which opinions result in life ruination. Such was the lesson Griffin Green learned when he made the grave mistake of having the ‘wrong’ opinion on bodegas, of all things.

However, Green’s disdain for bodegas was far from the only reason he faced a torrent of online hate, which culminated in his firing. Griffin Green was ultimately guilty of being an insufficiently woke white guy.

Green posted a TikTok in which he lamented the lack of supermarkets in the Bronx, where he recently moved. “Like, where are the Kroegers, and like, Whole Foods at?” he asks with innocence while strolling down the streets of New York. Green’s complaints had nothing to do with race, class, or anything of a political nature. Instead, he was merely disappointed that Apple Maps was directing him to bodegas, which lacked the particular foodstuffs he wanted.

The trouble began when Twitter user Haitian Doll posted a video of Green’s TikTok. The accompanying text merely read “Y’all.” No further editorializing was necessary, as the video itself was enough to foment a leftist mob. Haitian Doll’s tweet reached at least 17,000 retweets, 69,500 likes, and an astonishing five million views prior to the account being set to private. While most readers of The American Sun would probably find Green’s video unremarkable, and perhaps even sympathize with his culinary plight, it would appear that a considerable number of people felt otherwise.

So what about this viral clip proved so rage-inducing? It would seem there are a few factors at play. The most obvious is that bodegas are a cultural staple – and perhaps even a source of pride – in many New York City boroughs. As such, Green’s lack of respect for these sacred shops proved irksome to the locals.

Nevertheless, it didn’t take long for the left to racialize the situation, portraying Green as a privileged white kid out of touch with the experiences of minorities. “Maybe he should look into why all of these communities filled with POC don’t have the ‘nice’ supermarkets like whole foods and Kroger,” wrote one Twitter user. “They somehow just happen to be in the ‘nicer/white’ parts of town huh.”

Another user echoed a similar sentiment, writing, “If it were just about blending cultures, there would be no issue. It’s about how we (white people) start by infiltrating, then change the dynamic and cost of living, forcing displacement. We aren’t supporting business owners who don’t look like us, we are taking over. Not okay.”

So there you have it. Griffin Green is a privileged white male, intent on “infiltrating” a predominantly non-white neighborhood. His insidious plan: Replace the bodegas with Whole Foods! Were you to believe the mob, Green’s aversion to bodegas was racist and classist in nature.

But was this really the case?

There’s no reason to believe that Green indiscriminately hates minorities or poor people. It’s perfectly reasonable for a recent transplant to ponder the absence of regular grocery stores. Yet the online mob was intent on proving that he is, in fact, a bigot. A separate TikTok shows Green recently leaving the gym clad in an NAACP shirt. “So I’m like the only white dude in this whole gym,” says Green in the video. “So I got this NAACP shirt, so, uh, these people vibe with me more.”

To many, this video was the smoking gun of Green’s incorrigible racism. But in a comment on his now-private TikTok account, Green clarified that he bought the shirt to “support the coloured community.”

Of course, supporting the NAACP, an organization which promotes many left-wing causes, is by no means a requirement to prove one’s moral worth. Conservatives would do well to view the NAACP with suspicion. The point here is that the online mob’s characterization of Green’s motivations and beliefs is wholly inaccurate.

Further enraging to the mob was another TikTok from Green wherein he reacted to a throng of gay people in New York. “This place is so crazy. Like, so many gay people down here, which like, I don’t hate it, I’m all for it, do what you want,” he says. “I didn’t know this many gay people existed. It’s wild.” But given that he didn’t express support for gays in the proper manner, the left believes he doesn’t deserve to have a job.

There’s a common trend in Green’s videos: insensitivity to the left’s sacred cows. This can be chalked up to the fact that, prior to relocation to New York, he lived in Michigan. Some amount of culture shock is to be expected from such a move, even for someone who otherwise has no aversion to liberal values. If we take him at his word, he supports non-white advocacy groups and the so-called LGBT community. He doesn’t hate bodegas – he would just prefer to shop at a supermarket.

None of this mattered in the end. He was doomed the minute he found himself in the crosshairs of the mob.

Outreach, the tech company that employed him, was quick to send him packing. “Thank you for bringing this to our attention,” tweeted the company’s official Twitter account. “Upon investigation, we took swift internal action in accordance with our company policies and in alignment with our core values.” A followup tweet confirmed that Green was fired.

One can’t help but wonder: Were Green a different person – say, a black woman – would these clips have gone viral? Would he have been fired? Doubtful.

As far as the left is concerned, Green is guilty of being a normal white guy. Even if he isn’t a conservative, he looks the part. One can easily imagine him sporting a MAGA hat at a Trump rally; this, above all else, is why they hate him. Thus the insensitivity he displayed was nothing more than a casus belli. After all, resentment toward people like Griffin Green has increasingly become a requirement for membership in the left.

The sheer absurdity of Green’s cancellation should alarm all Americans. Where you stand on the bodega question shouldn’t determine whether you can exist in society. And if leftists want to ruin your life based on where you prefer to buy your groceries, just imagine what they would do with complete state power. What they did to Griffin Green, they would ecstatically do to us all a hundredfold. Never forget that.