Identity of ‘Bagel Karen’ filmed during racist tirade at Queens cashier revealed
REVEALED: ‘Bagel Karen’ filmed calling NY cashier a ‘b**** a** n****r’ when he asked her to put on mask says she’s a public school teacher and can’t be racist because she’s ‘39% Nigerian’
- Stephanie Denaro, 38, of Queens, New York confirmed she’s the ‘Bagel Karen’
- Denaro called a black cashier a ‘b**** a** n****r’ in Manhattan bakery on Sunday
- She was on line to buy bagels at Davidovich Bakery on Lower East Side
- Denaro was refused service because she was not wearing a mask
- On Instagram, she clapped back at outraged commenters on Tuesday
- Denaro claimed she couldn’t be racist because her four children are bi-racial
- She also claimed she is of African descent, including 39 per cent Nigerian
- Denaro’s social media shows her wearing MAGA hat and pro-Trump shirts
- She also believes in anti-vaxxer conspiracies including that COVID is a ‘hoax’
The woman who threw a racist tirade inside a Manhattan bakery on Sunday is a Queens resident who supports Donald Trump, opposes mask-wearing, claims African ancestry, and sued Mayor Bill de Blasio over school closures.
Stephanie Denaro, 38, of Rosedale defended herself for calling a black bakery employee a ‘b**** a** n****r’ after she was refused service for not wearing a mask inside Davidovich Bakery at Essex Market on the Lower East Side on Sunday.
Denaro claims to be a New York City public school teacher, but a spokesperson for the Department of Education said that she is not an employee of the agency.
‘All of you hating on me for no reason! News flash!!!! I AM BLACK!!!!!’ Denaro posted on Instagram on Tuesday, hours after video of the incident went viral.
‘My skin color does not look dark but my ancestry results came back as me being black! So do not be mad at me no more.
‘Leave me alone!!! As a young black woman I love all of you!!’
The post included a statement declaring that the ‘black and African-American race is the only race allowed to use the n-word.’
Stephanie Denaro, 38, of Rosedale, Queens defended herself for calling a black bakery employee a ‘b**** a** n****r’ after she was refused service for not wearing a mask inside Davidovich Bakery at Essex Market on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on Sunday
Denaro (right) who was waiting on line with her four children to pay for bagels at a New York City bakery referred to a black cashier as a ‘b**** a** n****r’ because she was refused for service for not wearing a mask
She also attached a graphic showing an ‘ethnicity estimate’ which claims that she is 39 per cent Nigerian.
Denaro claims that 12 per cent of her heritage is from the African nation of Mali; 8 per cent is from the Africa Southeastern Bantu region; 4 per cent is from the Ivory Coast and Ghana; 4 per cent is from Senegal; and 2 per cent is from Cameroon and Congo.
But the graphic and statistics about her DNA breakdown were plagiarized by Denaro, who lifted them from an October 2017 article by Tech Crunch writer Megan Rose Dickey.
In the story, Dickey describes sending her DNA to Ancestry and comparing those results with the findings that she received from 23andMe.
On Wednesday, Denaro posted another selfie photo.
‘Good morning triggered libs!!!’ she wrote in the caption on Wednesday, adding a sun emoji. ‘New day, new life as a young black woman!!!! Nothing you can do to stop me.’
In another post from Wednesday, she wrote: ‘I will always love who I am. Sticks and stones may break my bones by words will never break me��!!
‘For all of you that get mad over words!!! Learn how to move on with life!
‘Saying 1 word during a verbal fight is not the end of the world! I love all races. I love you all!!!!
‘My kids are not the same color as me so stop painting me as something I am not.
‘Regardless what you miserable people say I will always love myself!’
The caption was attached to an image showing Denaro hugging a tree.
After the video went viral, it sparked outrage on social media where users online have called for her to lose her job as well as her four children.
In other Instagram post, she is seen holding one of her children. The caption reads: ‘Can’t be racist if I have black children.’
Video of Sunday’s incident, which is said to have taken place at Davidovich Bakery in the Essex Market on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was circulated on the internet on Tuesday
‘Ma’am, he’s not going to serve you so please leave,’ the security guard tells Denaro, who continues to stand in line, refusing to move after she is refused service. ‘Why? Cause he’s a b**** a** n****r?’ Denaro said
Denaro finally leaves with her four children after the security guard notified the New York Police Department
A spokesperson for Essex Market (seen above on Manhattan’s Lower East Side) told DailyMail.com that management ‘strongly denounces the racist incident that occurred in our facility on Sunday’
The caption goes on: ‘Jealous libs. Oh yeah! #women4trump.’
Denaro is seen in the photo wearing a pink ‘Women for Trump’ t-shirt while holding one of her children.
In another post, she writes: ‘Ok stop with the dms. Let people have there opinions. I know you all have gotten into a argument and said bad things.
‘I was just having a bad day. I didn’t want to put a mask on because I have Asthma and Bronchitis. No one understood me so I got mad.
‘I tried my best to keep my composure and not scream at anyone. All I just wanted to do is purchase my stuff and leave and they all were verbally assaulting me.
‘Please spread love guys…. please forgive me!!! God wouldn’t want to do this!!’
Denaro on Tuesday confirmed that she was the woman filmed uttering the racial slur.
Her social media accounts show that she has posted several videos of her being confronted on city buses and stores about her refusal to cover her face.
Denaro said that it is a term she uses often. She said she has no qualms about uttering the slur due to the fact that her four children are bi-racial.
‘I said, “You’re a b**** a** n****r,” a term they use,’ she told the New York Daily News.
Denaro on Wednesday morning posted the above image on her Instagram account
‘Good morning triggered libs!!!’ she wrote in the caption on Wednesday, adding a sun emoji. ‘New day, new life as a young black woman!!!! Nothing you can do to stop me’
On her Instagram account, she posted an image on Tuesday showing her with one of her bi-racial children
The caption reads: ‘Can’t be racist if I have black children. Jealous libs. Oh yeah! #women4trump.’
‘All of my children have a black father. That’s a term I’ve heard them use all my life.’
When asked if she was worried about being outed as a ‘racist Karen,’ she said she welcomed the opportunity to call attention to a pro-Trump conspiracy theory.
‘It’s actually great, because they’re forcing people in New York City to wear masks,’ Denaro told the Daily News.
‘It’s political theater. I don’t believe in COVID-19.
‘It’s a hoax to convince people to use absentee ballots to steal the election from Donald Trump.’
The cashier who was the target of Denaro’s racial slurs, a 30-year-old worker who declined to be identified, told the Daily News: ‘She was two customers behind the lady I was already serving. She had five kids and she was wearing no mask.’
He said he told Denaro: ‘Ma’am, you may have forgotten to wear your mask. You must wear a mask.
‘She replied “Why should I?”’
Denaro also bizarrely claimed that she is of African ancestry
She also attached a graphic showing an ‘ethnicity estimate’ which claims that she is 39 per cent Nigerian. Denaro claims that 12 per cent of her heritage is from the African nation of Mali; 8 per cent is from the Africa Southeastern Bantu region; 4 per cent is from the Ivory Coast and Ghana; 4 per cent is from Senegal; and 2 per cent is from Cameroon and Congo
‘I replied, “With those answers I will not be able to serve you.’
‘Then she said, “You are a b**** a** n*****r.” She said it a lot.’
Denaro uttered the racial slur at the black cashier inside Davidovich Bakery at Essex Market on the Lower East Side at around 3pm on Sunday.
Denaro went to the bakery to buy bagels but was denied service by the cashier because she was not wearing a mask.
She stood on line for several minutes with her four small children during which the cashier told her that he would not be providing service to her.
‘I can’t wear a mask, sir,’ Denaro is heard saying.
A security guard nearby tells the cashier that he is not required to provide service to someone who isn’t wearing a mask.
The guard mentions that the woman does not wear a mask due to a ‘medical problem.’
apparently takes issue with a comment from the cashier who did not like how she was looking at him.
Denaro’s social media account includes several images showing her taking part in pro-Trump and anti-lockdown demonstrations and protests
On Januay 20, she posted a video showing her being thrown off a New York City public bus because she refused to wear a mask
‘Another day, another bus we get thrown off of by a bolshevik,’ Denaro wrote
‘You can’t even see how I’m looking at you. I have sunglasses on,’ the woman is heard telling the cashier.
A security guard standing nearby tries to intervene, urging the woman to leave the store.
Denaro apparently takes issue with a comment from the cashier who did not like how she was looking at him.
‘You can’t even see how I’m looking at you. I have sunglasses on,’ the woman is heard telling the cashier.
A security guard standing nearby tries to intervene, urging Denaro to leave the store.
‘I just want to order some bagels,’ she responded.
‘Ma’am, he’s not going to serve you so please leave,’ the security guard tells Denaro, who continues to stand in line, refusing to move.
‘Why? Cause he’s a b**** a** n****r?’ Denaro said.
After the video of her encounter at Davidovich Bakery went viral on Tuesday, Denaro posted several defiant messages on her Instagram
She also claimed to be receiving death and rape threats from trolls online
Denaro also claimed that she was having a ‘bad day’ and that she didn’t wear a mask because of asthma and bronchitis
She defiantly vowed ‘never to back down tot he libs’ over her support for Trump
‘That’s what he is! That’s what he is!’ she added as nearby shoppers gasped at hearing the racial slur, which she then repeated.
‘B**** a*** n****r…I just said it,’ Denaro said.
The security guard said she was going to call the police.
Denaro continued to argue with the cashier, saying: ‘It doesn’t affect me that you’re not going to serve me.’
When the security guard asked the woman if she called him by a racial slur, the woman responded: ‘I can call him whatever I want.’
Denaro’s social media includes images in which she declares her support for Trump.
Images show her speaking at pro-Trump rallies. Several posts also include anti-masking and anti-vaxxer messages.
Her Instagram includes notices asking people to attend a protest against COVID-19 vaccinations.
She also posted a video that was filmed with her own cell phone showing her being thrown off a New York City bus for not wearing a mask.
DailyMail.com has made several attempts to contact Denaro
Denaro claims to be a school teacher in the New York City public school system. DailyMail.com has sought comment from the city’s Department of Education
Denaro’s social media also includes video of several encounters with police after customers in stores complained she was not wearing a mask
‘Another day, another bus we get thrown off of by a bolshevik,’ the post’s caption read. The video was apparently posted on January 20.
‘You don’t want to do your job,’ Denaro is heard in the video telling the bus driver, who apparently emptied the bus and refused to drive as long as she declined to wear a mask.
‘This is not a law. A law is passed by a legislative body,’ she says in the clip.
‘A law is not passed by [New York Governor] Andrew Cuomo.’
She added: ‘You just don’t want to drive the bus. And you want to cause all this trauma for all these people for no reason.
‘You just want to pick on a woman with four children trying to get home because this makes you feel like a man.
‘And you’re taking all these people off the bus for no reason when you could just as easily drive the bus.’
Another video from that same day shows a New York City bus driver that was occupied by several passengers being delayed for at least 15 minutes because Denaro refused to wear a mask.
Denaro has posted several messages indicating her support for conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 lockdowns as well as anti-vaccine propaganda
Two days earlier, she posted a video showing her arguing with two New York Police Department officers who were called to a store where she apparently refused to wear a mask and was seen spitting at other customers.
‘Officers, I am allowed to shop here, and I have a disability,’ Denaro is heard telling the two NYPD officers.
‘I’m not going to be harassed in every single store I go to because I need to get food for my children.’
Denaro then told the officers that the people who claimed she spit at them were ‘making false allegations.’
DailyMail.com has made repeated attempts to reach Denaro.
According to voter registration records, Denaro was once a registered voter for the far-left Working Families Party.
Her social media also shows images from 2016 showing her wearing shirts that declare her support for Senator Bernie Sanders.
Records indicate that she then switched her party registration to Republican.
In January, she announced on Instagram that she was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that was filed against de Blasio over school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In January, she was among several plaintiffs who filed a federal lawsuit against Mayor Bill de Blasio. The lawsuit aimed to force the de Blasio administration to reopen New York City public schools to in-person learning. It was thrown out in federal court
‘So happy I’m part of this amazing lawsuit about how dumb Mayor Deblasio is,’ Denaro posted on her Instagram account on January 22.
‘Complete idiots are running nyc.’
The federal lawsuit was aimed at forcing the de Blasio administration to reopen all city schools for in-person learning.
US District Court Judge Paul G. Gardephe of the Southern District of New York rejected the lawsuit earlier this month.
