Kisuk Cha
A Hooters in Queens is facing a racial discrimination lawsuit after a Korean-American customer received a receipt containing a racial slur.
The New York Times reported yesterday:
In early July, Kisuk Cha and his girlfriend, both Korean immigrants, walked into a Hooters in Fresh Meadows and ordered buffalo shrimp and chicken wings to go. After they placed their order, they noticed their server and another employee standing at the computer giggling and “gawking at them,” according to the lawsuit.
When the server handed them their receipt, Mr. Cha and his girlfriend saw that in the space reserved for the customer’s name, the cashier had typed "chinx."
The Hooters employee responsible for the anti-Asian slur has reportedly resigned, and the restaurant reviewed months of receipts to check for other incidents, though none were found.
"That's not what we're all about, especially here in New York City, Queens County, the most diverse place int he world," Cha's attorney Daniel Baek told a local CBS affiliate.
CBS also reports that the restaurant chain is fighting back. Hooters attorney Edward McCabe acknowledged the incident as an isolated matter and said that it's not the business' responsibility when individual employees act out—a defense that Baek and his client refute:
"The law is very clear, you can hate Asians all you want, but the moment one walks into your place of business, he or she is entitled to equal treatment and protection. That’s been violated here," Baek told 1010 WINS’ Aaron Gerberg. "My client threw away his food after he saw the receipt — very disgusted. And ever since then, he did not go back to any national chain store whatsoever. He doesn’t want to go back to Hooters again."
There are two ways to look at this: as an overreaction on Cha's part, or as Cha standing up for himself and on the behalf of so many Asian-Americans who have endured discrimination.
I choose the latter. I choose the latter because anti-Asian rhetoric is too commonly accepted in this country. This incident is just one of many in recent memory. Remember Michigan Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra's 'Debbie Spend-it-Now' ad? Remember when last December, two Asian students in Irvine, California went to a Chick-fil-A where they received receipts that read "Ching" and "Chong" in place of their names. Remember last January when a 24-year-old Asian woman in New York City discovered her Papa John's receipt identified her as "lady chinky eyes"?
These micro-aggressions matter. They can lead to violence—like 30 years ago in the killing of Vincent Chin, or last year when Pvt. Danny Chen took his life. Acts of racism are more than just "frivolous cases," as McCabe remarked in defense of Hooters. Verbal assaults are all-too often the gateway to serious physical manifestations of hate.
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There needs to be better training. It must be know that this is unacceptable.
This is the type of thing no amount of training is going to fix. As you said, it must be known that it is unacceptable. And they must not care. I figure one of two things is happening. Someone is getting the thrill of seeing their "prank" get highlighted or people are teaming up to have a worker do it and a customer complain and file suit. Then sharing the windfall (or the conviction, depending on whether or not they get caught).
I went to Hooters once. Lots of bleach blondes with scrunched up breasts and orange skin tone worked there. I ordered their beer battered fish and chips. When I asked the waitress for some vinegar to put on my fish and chips, she looked at me like she had never heard of anyone using vinegar for on their fish before. She went into the kitchen to get me some, came out a few minutes later and said they don't carry any vinegar for on the fish. What do they use it for, I wonder?
Looks like the offending server's name was Shenika. This could get interesting.
People are definitely overreacting. I can remember my company mandating "diversity training" so that these names didnt happen. Talk about a circus. They asked us to give examples... By the time we ran the list of chink, wet back, honky, @!$%#, and a half dozen others, they cancelled the training and "reevaluated sensitivity training"... what they needed was backbone training. If someone cant take being called a name, they are quite the babies. In the case of Hooters, they were never even called a name. It was just on a piece of paper they happen to read. Kisuk needs to go get an honest job and quit looking for a quick buck handout from the court.
This crap shouldn't be happening. First Asians called "Ching Chongs" at a Palo Alto, CA Restaurant, now Chinx. No bueno, not good at all. Why are Asians targeted as bully fodder? To me, it's pretty infuriating whenever I hear crap like this... We already get stymied in mass media and bullied in schools. Even as grown adults, people STILL pull this crap off... Not cool
Asians have been bullied for a long freaking time. I grew up in an all white community and I was heavily bullied by other kids in school. While it totally sucked, I stuck through it and the guys (and girls!) who bullied me are either fat, in jail, have kids, or a combination of all three. Thank god! I feel like we could use more Asian American role models, male to be specific. Bruce Lee is mine, and frankly, I watched a ton of him movies as a kid to get over those jackasses pushing me around. Unfortunately, BL is long gone, but thank goodness we’ve got guys like Jeremy Lin to make it happen!
We do not need humorless weany immigrants. Go home.
I think it is worthwhile to break down acts of racism into two different categories: The capitalism built on racism for personal gain, and the institutionalized racism that perpetuates from ignorance.
There are some enlightening doctoral papers written on the origins of prejudice. Centuries ago, prejudice based on religion was more prevalent than racism, as centuries old history shows diverse ethnic groups were well integrated. Though there has always been slavery and oppression of peoples, it was not color based.
It has been argued that most racial prejudice originated from capitalism, with the justification of monopolizing on human slavery in the pursuit of personal profit. This societal practice of valuing monetary gain at the expense of human suffering also devalued the integrity of religious institutions as hypocritical in its teachings. Perhaps the continued justification of new world slavery was reliant on devaluing other ethnic groups.
I am now sold on the need to read Howard University professor Frank Snowden's Before Color Prejudice and Blacks in Antiquity.
This Hooter's employee, rather than preaching hate, was limited to being personally tickled about denigrating another's race. This type of perceived humor usually comes from narrow minds. It is more equivalent to middle-aged children when they first learn to belittle others by mocking the lunchpails and clothes of another. Absent any real wit with substance, it is a regression to that which we first understand as children will facilitate our own acceptance into the "group".
Proper education (from family to schools) and breaking down institutionalized prejudice through zero-tolerance by peer pressure can go a long way. But until we are more capable as human beings to accomplish this, our Republic must represent the adult in the room through policies protecting all citizen' rights and nonprejudicial treatment by corporations.
Thank you,Melissa
Thank you, Melissa