By now, everyone here at Kutztown University has heard about Willie James Johnson, the omelet and stir fry cook at the Cub Café, being arrested for trafficking women and paying them with heroin. While this is absolutely horrible and I felt like I needed to vomit after hearing about what had happened, this story is not about him. It is about “the other stir fry guy.”
On Friday afternoon, I went to the Cub Café to get some lunch with a friend. Oddly, I was in the mood for some stir fry. I was the only one in line so, “the other stir fry guy” and I got to talking about Johnson. He told that you can’t always believe what you hear, especially when a bunch of “doped up women” are making accusations. I looked at the man with absolute shock. First of all, the women were “doped up” because Johnson was giving them heroin, which does not make the situation any better. Second, if these people were not women, would you be saying the same things? The last article I read said six women had spoken up, which to me means that something definitely happened. I don’t care who said it, when multiple people speak up about the same situation; it typically means something shady did happen.
“The other stir fry guy” proceeded to tell me that Johnson is a good man because he bought his child a present for their birthday. I couldn’t help but think to myself that the money he bought that gift with probably came from the money he received from trafficking these women. Also, buying a gift for someone does not automatically redeem you from illegal activity.
As we kept talking, it got worse. “The other stir fry guy” decided to start telling me about his other coworkers, specifically a woman the used to work at the grill. He told me “she was actually a dude.” Again, I looked at him completely shocked. I said, “excuse me?” He told me that in his book, if you have a penis, you are a man. I looked him right in the eye and said, “That’s called transphobia.” If a person happens to be born with a penis, but they identify as a woman, you refer to that person as a woman. She is not a “dude” or a “man,” she is a woman and deserves to be given the respect you would give a cisgender person.
By this point, “the other stir fry guy” should have realized he was telling all of this to the wrong person, because I don’t let this slide. I didn’t even know how we got on this topic in the first place, but I gladly was willing to tell him off.
After I went on that whole tangent, he asked me, “Well what do you think of the bathroom situation?” “Frankly,” I said, “it is ridiculous that there is even an argument about this.” He then told me that he thinks locker rooms are sacred. My response was “what does that even mean?” I received no answer. “The other stir fry guy” handed me my food and I left right away, telling my friend as I met up with her that I knew what I was writing my Her Campus article about this week.