Chinese, Japanese, Dirty Knees

Anyone catch that little news gem that happened late last year? An RA at UC Irvine went to Chick-fil-A, ordered, but the cashier didn't take their names. Instead, they took it upon themselves to name the customers “Ching” and “Chong”. Yes, this crap was happening even in 2011. Doing the right thing, Chick-fil-A immediately canned that employee (though they still support anti-gay groups, so they're also still doing wrong things).

Lesson learned for society right?

Well, until this past week when a New York woman ordered a Papa John's pizza and her receipt was labeled “lady chinky eyes”. As per protocol, that employee was also fired. But did people catch what that Papa John's manager said?

“It’s a busy place, and it was a way to identify her and her order,” he said. “You know, we do stuff like that sometimes. We’ll write ‘the lady with the blue eyes’ or ‘the guy in the green shirt.’”

Even better, the manager goes on to blame that customer for causing a minor uproar at his store, as people have been prank calling the store and causing other distractions.

Well, ok, it sucks that your store has to suffer for the ignorance of a past employee. But do you really think “green shirt” is on the same level as “chinky eyes”? It's ridiculous that people in this age think it's ok to write something like that, but that's because not enough people are causing ruckuses. I will give some props to Papa John's for suspending that manager for two weeks; not for speaking his mind, but for condoning such a move.

If you need to describe someone and you immediately turn to stereotypes, maybe you need to expand your mind a little. Maybe if more ruckuses were raised, it would get into people's heads that such things aren't cool. Now, I always say there's a balance to be had with these situations; you don't want to be accused of crying wolf. But this...this is just unabashed racism.

Yes, sorry people, racism still exists even in 2012. Happy new year!