A newly naturalized Korean-American citizen took his girlfriend to Hooters for a bite and received more than he asked for—being called a racial slur.
The 25-year-old victim and his 27-year-old girlfriend stopped at Hooters for take out of Buffalo shrimp and a 10-piece order of chicken wings on July 1st.
The victim paid his $21.75 tab but suspected something was up because while they were preparing his order, he noticed the hostesses “gawking” at them and “giggling” after looking at the computer monitor. The victim later realized why when he looked closely at his receipt. The woman at the register labeled his receipt, “Chinx,” a racial slur against Asians.
When he saw the racial slur, he was shocked, stunned, mortified, humiliated and severely distressed, the suit stated.
The victim stated, “I’m happy to a be a citizen, but I was so offended,” the victim who works in information technology said, “This isn’t what I got my citizenship for – to be treated like this.”
The victim filed a lawsuit against Hooters for damages in excess of $150,000 for the humiliation he suffered. He is suing for racial discrimination. His girlfriend is not a plaintiff in the suit.
The victim wanted to confront the server but the humiliation was too much. He did not eat the food he just purchased, sickened by the slur and concerned that they may have spit in his dish.
The food server, whose name appears on the receipt, was cleared after a hostess stepped forward and admitted that she, not the food server, had written the ethnic slur. She is an unidentified 20-year-old employee who resigned immediately after admitting guilt.
She apologized and claimed that she didn’t realize how offensive it was.
Hooters also went through 3 months’ worth of past receipts to find if there were any other instances of racism, but found none.
It was stated that employees are permitted to refer to customers by an article of clothing or hair color to help workers remember who placed which order, but never by their race.
The victim continued with the lawsuit anyway, saying that the incident “haunts” him and he is afraid to go to any non-Korean restaurants.
In January, a famous pizza franchise was forced to apologize to an Asian customer who was described as “lady chinky eyes” on her food order.
Besides the fact that part of the training at the restaurant teaches the employees to refer to customers by the color of their shirts, not the color of their skin, most people know that it is not politically correct behavior to use racial profiling in any situation. Since the employees represent the franchise, the restaurant is responsible for their actions.
Contact one of our Gacovino Lake attorneys at 1-800-246-HURT (4878).
