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Training Must Include Cultural Sensitivity: Papa John's apologizes for receipt's racial slur

publication date: Jan 17, 2012
 | 
author/source: Alan Duke, CNN
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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. 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."


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