She ordered a pizza — and got an extra topping of racism.
When Harlem resident Minhee Cho, 24, ordered a small pizza from a Papa John’s restaurant, she was shocked to find that a staffer ID’d her as “lady chinky eyes” on her receipt.
“I don’t think a giant corporation should write those things on a receipt,” Cho told The Post last night. “That’s poor management. It was surprising to see that on paper; if they had said it in person, it would have been worse.”
Cho posted the receipt with the racial slur on her Twitter account yesterday, where it was viewed more than 100,000 times in less than four hours.
“I probably would not go there again, because they would probably spit in my food,” said a resigned Cho, who is Korean. “I live in Harlem; this is normal.”
“I live in Harlem; this is normal.”
A manager — who would identify himself only as Jerome — at the cheesy chain restaurant on Broadway near West 142nd Street said the slur was just business as usual.
“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.’ ”
He said the cashier, a teen, meant no harm.
Cho’s Twitter posting set off a fierce campaign of prank calls that had the restaurant’s phone ringing off the hook with phony customers dialing in asking to order Chinese food or asking for “chinky eyes.”
“It’s affecting how we work,” Jerome complained. “This is a place of business. I truly don’t think it’s fair what she did; it’s just crazy.”
Shockingly, he blamed Cho for the distraction.
“I think the lady put it out there just to get some attention — some people like that type of attention. I truly don’t think it’s fair. It’s been taking up all our time. It’s been very disruptive.”
Cho said,“it just seems that he’s annoyed that they’re getting a lot of calls. I think the racist thing just caught fire.”
Papa John’s officials offered a formal apology on their Twitter account last night and said the employee who wrote the offensive receipt was fired.
Editor’s Note: Papa John’s has apologized read the story here.
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Come on! 142nd and B’way is not Harlem. It is Hamilton Heights.
We have stop demoralizing the Village of Harlem with every area that have a ethnic population.
Harlem is Harlem, it was defined long before we arrived:
http://harlemworldblog.wordpress.com/harlem/
Hamilton Heights is most certainly a part of Harlem, just like the West Village is a part of Greenwich Village.
While I had seen examples of racism at various points in my life, it was never so concentrated as I what I have witnessed in my 6 years of living in Harlem. Despite the narrow-mindedness of some- I consider Harlem a wonderful place to live.
While I am a fairly recent resident- both sides of my family have had a connection to Harlem for 80 years (living, working, or attending school here).
thanks Adam.
HW
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When I was born in 1946 and lived 143 on and Convent until 1949, it was Harlem. WhenI grew up in The Dunbar apartments on 150th between 7th and 8th your so-called Harlem Heights was still Harlem but differentiated by the name “Up on the Hill.” Harlem is Harlem no matter wht it’s called for purposes of gentrification.
Many of the neighborhood names existed long before gentrification took hold but were nearly forgotten by many of the locals through the passage of time. For instance, Harlem Heights existed in 1776 (though it was located in what we now call Morningside Heights) and became well known throughout history for the Battle of Harlem Heights. For all the controversy regarding Manhattanville in recent years- that section of Manhattan was formally named the Village of Manhattanville in 1806. I have met far too many locals that claim the neighborhood name is made up due to gentrification- but in reality are not educated on the true history of the neighborhood. Insisting the neighborhood is called West Harlem might be fine due to lack of formality..but all too often it has been a veil for racism or just as likely economic inequality.
Adam,
Thank you for your comment.
HW