Starbucks customer furious over ‘illegal’ message written on her cup
Topics: Starbucks, Politics, Donald Trump, US News
Jen Thomas
Featured Image Credit: CBS Texas
Topics: Starbucks, Politics, Donald Trump, US News
Most people love it when Starbucks get their name wrong on a cup or draw a smiley face, but one customer in Texas got more than she bargained for with her drink.
One customer claims she was the victim of an 'offensive' joke when she collected her horchata latte.
Bianca Lopez has shared her outrage, after she collected a drink which she said targeted her and her Hispanic culture.
It comes as Donald Trump has increased his focus on deportations and there have been violent riots involving ICE (Immigration Customs and Enforcement) which saw one reporter being shot live on TV with a rubber bullet.
Advert
Lopez was visiting the Starbucks store in Irving, Texas, inside a Target outlet.
According to CBS Texas, she was with her two daughters, and one of them noticed something had been scrawled across the lid of the cup in black marker pen.
It is common for a customer's name to be written on the cup along with their order or a brief nice message, but this was something different.
Bianca and her daughters found a joke had been written across the lid.
It read: “What do you call a sick eagle?”
“Illegal,” was the answer underneath, an apparent pun on an 'ill eagle'.
Lopez was furious about the joke, feeling like it was targeted towards her family as they are Hispanic. She has now called for the unnamed barista to be fired for the act.
“It’s basically saying that we are sick, illegal individuals that do not belong in this country,” she told CBS Texas.
“When I read it, I’m like, OK. Was I supposed to laugh or what do I need to do?” she recalled about the 'offensive' remark.
“Why did they call me that? Why are they asking if I have papers or no papers? Why did she write this?” she added.
“For me, like, it’s offensive.”
She said it was inappropriate and explained it had upset her because she had friends, family and relatives who had been deported.
Lopez complained to the store's manager, and she was reportedly told there would be a meeting about the joke.
However, Bianca does not feel that a meeting is enough: “I work as a manager. If someone on my team did something like that, I would fire her immediately,” she said.
Local members of the community are up in arms about the remark, and soon organised on Facebook to meet outside the Starbucks.
One of the protestors, Carlos Quintanilla, said they should be able to meet the 'author of the offensive joke,' however after an hour it was cancelled after nobody else arrived.
Despite the lack of support, Quintanilla still went into the store while livestreaming his actions on Facebook.
However, he did not make it to the Starbucks after a store employee noticed he was filming and asked him to leave.
“It’s not easy to organize our community to raise their voice, I understand that protesting is already very difficult but acting is quite simple. Even Starbucks and Target have responded to our insistence to clarify their position on the offensive ‘ILLEGAL’ advertisement,” Quintanilla wrote.
“Let’s suspend our protest in forgiveness and let’s Protest in Silence!”
He said of the joke: “It’s not just inappropriate, it’s disturbing. Especially right now, when the narrative being thrown out in mass media is if you’re illegal, you’re a criminal, and if you’re a criminal, you’re illegal.”