A waiter has been fired at a New York City restaurant after naming an Asian customer as “Ching Chong” on her receipt.
As reported by Shanghaiist, Facebook user Ziggy Chau posted a photo of the receipt that a friend’s mother was given when ordering a takeaway. On the receipt from Cornerstone Cafe located in East Village, the server had typed in “Ching Chong” for the customer’s name.
In Chau’s post, she called for a boycott of the restaurant until it issued a public apology. She also slammed President Donald Trump for inspiring such incidents.
“Hate to get political but in light of what is happening here in the USA and our current president seem to make it ok to come out and be blatantly racist,” she wrote.
Chau called the restaurant and spoke to Rocco, the manager, who said the server simply misheard the customer’s name.
Upon hearing the response, Chau updated her Facebook post, urging people to fight for a public apology from the restaurant.
“This is not about being petty or overly sensitive,” she wrote. “This is about speaking up when it matters, especially as Asians.”
Eventually, Rocco issued an apology on the restaurant’s Facebook page saying he fired the employee for the “unjustified act”.
“It definitely does not reflect the way the Cornerstone staff or I think because of one individual’s stupidity,” Rocco said.
Chau added that she did not wish for the restaurant to shut down because “there are many people that are employed by the restaurant whose livelihoods depend on their jobs there and should not suffer because ONE IGNORANT employee thought it was ok to make a racist remark.”
The cafe no longer has a Facebook page.
“Asians clearly have a lot of work to do in terms of speaking up,” Chau declared. “We should also not be afraid or fear speaking out for other people, too because racism against ANY one group of people is WRONG and it is EVERYONE’S issue!”
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