Starbucks staff print racial slur on a Mexican customer's cup

Starbucks has landed itself in yet another storm of criticism after a branch in California printed a racial slur on a cup.

A man named Pedro, who is of Hispanic descent, had ordered two drinks at the La Cañada Flintridge Starbucks on Tuesday.

When Pedro's drinks were delivered to him he noticed that the derogatory word 'beaner,' a term used against Mexican and Hispanic people, was written on them.

While Starbucks staff are well known for making a hash of people's names in an amusing fashion, resorting to racism is unacceptable.

Speaking to Fox 11, Pedro said that he was hurt and upset to see the word written on the cups and that he didn't believe that it was an accident.

He also said that he took it back to the restaurant where he works and his colleagues were as equally appalled by the use of the word.

Starbucks has since released a statement. They are quoted by The Daily Mail as saying:

This is not indicative of the type of experience we want our customers to have when they walk into our stores.

We have apologised to the customer directly and are working to make things right.

The excuse given by the staff was that they couldn't understand what Pedro was saying, but he feels that can't be true as he says they read his name out loud when the drinks were ready.

Pedro added that the store has since offered him a $50 gift card, which he refused as he didn't want anything for free and just wants "respect".

This incident comes just weeks after two black customers were arrested for merely sitting in a store in Philadelphia without ordering anything and were denied bathroom access.

HT Daily Mail

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