Starbucks is investigating after a customer at a La Cañada Flintridge store said he received two coffee cups with the word “Beaner” – a derogatory term for Mexicans – printed on them instead of his name this week.
Tuesday’s incident comes as Starbucks plans to close more than 8,000 of its company-owned stores across the country on May 29 to conduct “racial-bias” training in an effort to prevent discrimination at its stories.
(Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG) That decision was made after two African American men were arrested in April for sitting at a Starbucks in Philadelphia without ordering something.
Employees of the Starbucks in La Cañada Flintridge told authorities that the barista believed a Latino customer had identified himself as “Beaner,” and thus placed the term on his coffee cup Tuesday.
(Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG) Poor, infuriated by the use of the derogatory term, said he took to Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat to post images of the cups, decrying Starbucks as #racist.
Manuel Pastor, a professor of sociology at USC, said the word beaner is historically a “very derogatory term” that refers to Mexicans eating a lot of beans.
“They happen in Starbucks and coffee shops and places all the time where racially offensive things are printed on receipts to identify customers.
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