Air Force veteran accuses Starbucks of racism after incorrect name placed on order

[SummerMadness]

Air Force veteran accuses Starbucks of racism after incorrect name placed on order

A military veteran says he got a side-order of disrespect with his Starbucks drink, alleging an employee purposely mixed up his name to make fun of his Asian background.

"I just stormed out," the man said. "I was like, 'I really can't believe this.'"

Johncarl Festejo, John for short, says that what left him in disbelief was the way he was identified at Starbucks Monday morning.

"I said my name is John," Festejo said.

But Festejo says the barista labeled the order placed by John and his 12-year-old daughter Milan as 'Chang.'

 

[Tinker Grey]

Meh. John in a noisy environment might plausibly sound like Chang (ChAHng). Chang is, after all, a legit asian name ... P.F. Chang's.

Maybe this happened, maybe it was racist, but how does this rise to the level of national news?

 

[SummerMadness]

Meh. John in a noisy environment might plausibly sound like Chang (ChAHng). Chang is, after all, a legit asian name ... P.F. Chang's.

Maybe this happened, maybe it was racist, but how does this rise to the level of national news?

Right, let's turn the common pronunciation of Chang into a different word that uses the "ah" as opposed to "ā," while referring to the name P.F. Chang's, which uses the "ā" sound.

 

[Jon Osterman]

"ah" as opposed to "ā,"

"John" contains neither of these sounds.

 

[Tinker Grey]

Right, let's turn the common pronunciation of Chang into a different word that uses the "ah" as opposed to "ā," while referring to the name P.F. Chang's, which uses the "ā" sound.

Yeah, I know. That's why I specified a noisy environment. I don't think it's implausible.

 

[Tinker Grey]

"John" contains neither of these sounds.

I don't know about you, but I pronounce John as jAHn

 

[SummerMadness]

"John" contains neither of these sounds.

Well, we know that. John also doesn't contain "ŋ" ("-ng") sound.

 

[Radagast]

Well, we know that. John also doesn't contain "ŋ" ("-ng") sound.

I don't think you can distinguish n and ng in a noisy environment. Sometimes not even in a quiet one.

This episode sounds like a genuine mistake.

 

[GoldenBoy89]

How does this make Starbucks (the company) racist? Wouldn't it just be that one particular barista?

 

[dysert]

I don't think you can distinguish n and ng in a noisy environment. Sometimes not even in a quiet one.

This episode sounds like a genuine mistake.

What's that old saying? Don't attribute "mistake" to something that could even remotely be construed as racist. (or something like that ;-)

Another "victim" looking for 15 minutes of fame.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

How does this make Starbucks (the company) racist? Wouldn't it just be that one particular barista?

I would take it the other way and make Washington State racist because they are the home office of Starbucks…

 

[GoldenBoy89]

I would take it the other way and make Washington State racist because they are the home office of Starbucks…

Good approach. You can never be too safe.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Good approach. You can never be too safe.

Washington State is a Part of the United States and so is the Air Force; therefore the customer was also an employee of a racist institution, empowered by a racist country encounters another racist employee at a racist company. This cancels everything out; therefore, nothing happened at a Starbucks. (Except for their blatant attacks on Christmas and Christians as a known Belligerent in the War on Christmas)

 

[whatbogsends]

I would take it the other way and make Washington State racist because they are the home office of Starbucks…

I put it to you, isn't this an indictment of our entire American society?

You can do what you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and let you bad mouth the United States of America!

 

[Nithavela]

Starbucks barrista miswrote a name?

Say it ain't so!

I better tell my good friend Airwrecka.

 

[BigDaddy4]

I would take it the other way and make Washington State racist because they are the home office of Starbucks…

Whoa, you not still mad at us because you got that flesh eating disease in our state are you??

 

[Jon Osterman]

I once told the barrista at Starbucks that my name was Nebuchadnezzar. Without hesitation, she wrote "Ned" on the cup.

 

[RDKirk]

Starbucks barrista miswrote a name?

Say it ain't so!

I better tell my good friend Airwrecka.

I checked my Starbucks receipt this morning. They know my name, but they put "2583" on the receipt.

"I am not a number! I am a free man!"

 

[RDKirk]

Air Force veteran accuses Starbucks of racism after incorrect name placed on order

First: "Chang" pronounced correctly does sound much like "John," particularly there is a lot of background noise going on.

Roy O'Bannon: Roy O'Bannon.
Chon Wang: [shaking his hands] My name is Chon Wang.
Roy O'Bannon: John Wayne?
Chon Wang: Chon Wang.
Roy O'Bannon: That's a terrible cowboy name!
Chon Wang: Why?
Roy O'Brannon: No, come on. That's not gonna work. That's horrible; that's so bad! And so's the ponytail!

 

[RDKirk]

I'm also retired from the Air Force, I go to Starbucks a lot, and I've even spent time in Vacaville (which is the town adjacent Beale Air Force Base, home of the SR-71 and U-2). It's a small town, but they have a warm relationship with the military and with military retirees--and they are acutely conscious of their economic dependency on military customers.

If he went to the Starbucks before dropping his daughter off at middle school, then he hit them at their most busy time of the day.

In my experience, Starbucks is barely controlled pandemonium at that time of day. Generally, at least two and usually three different people are handling each order: One takes the order and the name (and writes the name and order on the cup), one cashiers it, another prepares and delivers it. And at that time of day, the manager (they usually have working managers--you might not be able to distinguish the manager from the baristas) will be in the midst of that pandemonium.

Now, which is more likely?

A. Someone decides out of the blue to screw with a customer, cause a possible scene at the busiest time of the day, with the manager likely standing right there, and the other baristas (who want to keep their jobs) inevitably knowing what had happened?

B. In the pandemonium, someone just screwed up. This is the mistake I think was made:

Someone was familiar with the proper pronunciation of "Chang." That person didn't hear "John" clearly, saw the Asian appearance, and erroneously presumed the man had said "Chang."

Tripped up by his own knowledge and by an erroneous presumption. I suspect that anyone looking north Asian who goes to Starbucks Beijing and says his name is "John" will always be called "Chang."

But there was no intention to be insulting, just rather dumb for making an appearance-based presumption.