Training Must Include Cultural Sensitivity
Papa John's apologizes for receipt's racial slur
By
Alan Duke, CNN
updated 3:29 PM EST, Sun January 8, 2012
Papa John's customer Minhee Cho posted a photo of the receipt on her Twitter account Saturday morning.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Minhee Cho's receipt goes viral online after she posts it on Twitter
- "just FYI my name isn't 'lady chinky eyes,'" Cho tweets
- "This act goes against our company values," Papa John's says
- Cho wants the controversy "to blow over," her employer says
(CNN) -- Papa John's Pizza fired a cashier at one of
its New York restaurants and apologized to an Asian-American customer
for a receipt that identified her as "lady chinky eyes."
"We were extremely concerned to learn of the receipt issued in New
York," the company said in a statement posted on its Facebook page
Saturday.
Minhee Cho, a communications manager at nonprofit investigative
journalism group ProPublica, posted a photo of the receipt on her
Twitter account Saturday morning and by the afternoon it was picked up
by a local newspaper.
Along with the receipt, Cho tweeted "just FYI my name isn't 'lady chinky eyes.'"
The receipt had been viewed online almost 200,000 times by Sunday afternoon, according to the counter on the Twitpic page.
Cho did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment, but her boss did.
"This blew up far beyond Minhee's expectations," ProPublica spokesman
Mike Webb said in an e-mail. "She has reporters coming to her
apartment, and that's annoying. So she wants it to blow over and she has
nothing more to say."
Cho was a customer Friday night at the Papa John's on Broadway in
Manhattan's Hamilton Heights neighborhood, according to the receipt.
"This act goes against our company values, and we've confirmed with
the franchisee that this matter was addressed immediately and that the
employee is being terminated," the pizza company said. "We are truly
sorry for this customer's experience."
