Starbucks Barista Draws ‘Chinky Eyes’ on Korean-American Customer’s Cup

Feb 08, 2012

First it was "Ching Chong" at Chick-Fil-A in Irvine then it was it was "Lady Chinky Eyes" at a Papa John’s in Harlem and now a Starbucks Barista in Georgia drawing "chinky eyes" on a cup to identify two Korean-American customers.

On January 9th, I wrote a story titled "Calling Asians Racist Slurs on Fast Food Receipts is Now a National Trend" about a growing number of incidents where fast food workers identify customers on receipts with a racist slur, or in this latest case, a drawing. At places like Starbucks and Jamba Juice the person taking customers’ orders is suppose to ask for the customers name to ensure they get the correct drink in a more efficient manner but as Angryasianman.com reports, that’s not always the case:

Last month at a Starbucks Coffee location in Alpharetta, Georgia, two Korean customers — who are not native English speakers — discovered that their barista had identified them by drawing "chinky eyes" on their drinks. You know, where they usually write your name? OH NO THEY DIDN’T. Yes, they did.

You cannot tell me those are both just two random squiggles on those cups. I’m told that the customers immediately complained to the store manager, who did not defend the drawings or offer some kind of bullshit explanation, but simply apologized. And that’s it. Oh, sorry for the racist way we run our coffee joint.

The caricatures were drawn at a Starbucks in Alpharetta where 72% of the population is white, while Asians make up 13.7 of the population, according to 2010 census data.

"I guess it’s too much to hope that the Starbucks employees in question would give a damn about the people in their neighborhood. Instead, two Asian customers were simply reduced to a wordless, racist caricature with the stroke of a pen," Angryasianman.com went on to say.