Two employees at a Ford dealership have been terminated following an incident in which a racial slur was printed on the oil change reminder stickers of multiple customers, including a Black man who described feeling deeply humiliated and belittled by the discovery.
The controversy centers on Rusty Eck Ford, where an internal investigation revealed that an employee had typed the N-word into the dealership’s computer system while generating a reminder sticker for his own vehicle after routine maintenance. Rather than clearing out the offensive text, the user allowed the language to remain saved in the digital terminal. As a result, the slur was inadvertently printed onto the service reminder stickers of four unsuspecting customers who visited the dealership for routine maintenance over the following weeks.
For Larry Martin, Jr., the reality of what happened did not sink in immediately. In fact, it was weeks before he realized the offensive language was printed on his vehicle’s paperwork. Martin only discovered the text after being contacted directly by representatives from Rusty Eck Ford, who asked him to bring his truck back to the dealership so they could inspect the sticker. Upon looking closer at the reminder affixed to his vehicle, Martin saw that the text explicitly read, "THANK YOU. COME AGAIN! N*****."
When the issue was initially brought to light, the dealership’s response offered little comfort to the affected customer. Management reportedly provided Martin with a replacement sticker and offered assurances that the rogue actions of the employee did not reflect the core company values or corporate standards of Rusty Eck Ford. For Martin, however, a simple replacement sticker and a verbal assurance fell woefully short of addressing the psychological impact of the incident.
Speaking in local interviews, Martin expressed the lingering distress caused by the discovery. "It’s humiliating… it carries a lot of weight, and every time I get in my truck, this is what I’m thinking. It doesn’t go away," Martin told regional news outlet KAKE. "I feel belittled, and I just want to know why."
An Insufficient Response
Martin’s family quickly stepped forward to advocate on his behalf, arguing that Rusty Eck Ford had failed to handle the situation with the gravity and transparency it demanded. His daughter, Kelsey, voiced persistent concerns regarding the exact sequence of events and the initial oversight by management.
"No one deserves to be humiliated like this," Kelsey told reporters. "An apology just isn’t enough, and it doesn’t suffice for the embarrassment that my father has experienced."
Following an initial, relatively tepid public statement in which a dealership spokesperson acknowledged an internal inquiry and the termination of an employee for inappropriate conduct, dealership leadership met directly with members of the Martin family. During this meeting, the family presented additional questions and information that prompted higher-level management to dig deeper into the incident.
This extended internal review uncovered that Martin was not an isolated case. Further auditing of the service records revealed that three other customers outside of Martin had also received oil change reminder stickers bearing the identical racial slur.
According to official findings released by Rusty Eck Ford and reported by KAKE, the sequence of events began when the primary employee entered the offensive language while creating a reminder sticker for his personal vehicle after servicing it on-site. While a second employee subsequently discovered the inappropriate language lingering within the system and deleted it, that individual failed to report the discovery to management, allowing the automated system to continue generating the contaminated stickers for incoming service clients.
Following the expanded investigation, the second employee was also fired. In updated statements, representatives for Rusty Eck Ford emphasized that the business maintains a strict zero-tolerance policy regarding racial, hateful, discriminatory, demeaning, or derogatory conduct by any member of its staff.
The incident at the Wichita dealership highlights a broader, troubling pattern within the automotive service industry. Similar racially motivated incidents have surfaced at other service centers across the country in recent years. In 2023, a cleaning crew and staff members at a Volkswagen dealership faced intense backlash after typing a racial slur onto a customer’s oil change reminder sticker. In another high-profile case years prior, a Nissan dealership and related entities faced intense scrutiny after a customer discovered a similar slur printed on service documents, prompting widespread industry conversations about systemic accountability and workplace culture in automotive retail.
As questions remain regarding the steps Rusty Eck Ford will take to repair its relationship with the community and ensure such failures cannot happen again, customers like Martin are left dealing with the enduring personal fallout of casual workplace bigotry disguised as administrative oversight.
