Yesterday, Harlem resident Minhee Cho tweeted her Papa John's receipt from Friday night in which she was referred to by a racist term, writing, "Hey @PapaJohns just FYI my name isn't 'lady chinky eyes.'" Papa John's has since apologized profusely on Twitter and Facebook, and have fired the 16-year-old high school girl who wrote it. But some employees still think the whole incident was blown way out of proportion: “I think the lady put it out there just to get some attention—some people like that type of attention," a manager named Jerome told the Post. "I truly don’t think it’s fair. It’s been taking up all our time. It’s been very disruptive.”
An assistant manager at the store told us that the teen meant no harm with the slur she used to identify Cho: "We're all of different races here in this store. So she didn't mean any harm, didn't mean to stereotype against her, to discriminate against her, but that's how she took it." Jerome agreed with her, saying employees use slang to identify customers: “It’s a busy place, and it was a way to identify her and her order. You know, we do stuff like that sometimes. We’ll write ‘the lady with the blue eyes’ or ‘the guy in the green shirt.’ ”
But essentially, it doesn't seem as though Jerome sees any problem with the term used: “It’s affecting how we work. This is a place of business. I truly don’t think it’s fair what she did; it’s just crazy.” This echoes what Ronald Johnson—the Papa John's operating partner who runs five stores in Manhattan including the one where the incident took place—told us yesterday, when he explained why he was initially reluctant to fire the cashier:
I bet I'll talk to her and she wont know why this is offensive. She needs to know, and she will know. If I fire her, two years from now, she won't even remember why she got fired. If I sit her down and talk to her, I can help her. You still need a certain decorum and level of professionalism [at minimum wage jobs], and that may help her more in the long run.
Cho told the Daily News she was surprised at what she found on the receipt, considering she had a positive interaction with the cashier: “I was very surprised because the lady that was serving me was super nice and we joked and it seemed super normal.” She did admit that Jerome was right in one sense—she posted the receipt on the internet to show her friends and shame Papa John’s, which worked. "We are very upset by recent receipt issue in New York & sincerely apologize to our customer. Franchise employee involved is being terminated," Papa John's tweeted soon after the picture went viral.
The company was still trying to get in touch with Cho as of last night to apologize directly to her. She doesn't seem eager to go back to the store anytime soon: “I probably would not go there again, because they would probably spit in my food,” she told the Post. One of her Twitter followers questioned why she was even there in the first place: "Whoever did this needs to get fired. But the real issues is you are in NYC getting Papa Johns, why?!?"
