A Texas Starbucks customer claims she and her culture were the target of an “offensive” joke written on the lid of her drink by one of the store’s employees.
Blanca Lopez, who is Hispanic, ordered a horchata latte during a trip with her two daughters to the Starbucks inside the Irving, Texas Target store on June 23, CBS Texas reported.
One of Lopez’s daughters noticed their mother’s cup had a message scribbled in black marker across the clear lid, an abnormality for a company known for writing customer names on the side of its products.
“What do you call a sick eagle?” the cup asked, according to a photo obtained by the outlet.
“Illegal,” the riddle answered.
Lopez was left in shock by the joke written on her order.
“It’s basically saying that we are sick, illegal individuals that do not belong in this country,” she told the outlet.
Lopez recalled her confusion when she first saw the message, unsure if the note was a light-hearted joke or an attack on her identity.
“When I read it, I’m like, OK. Was I supposed to laugh or what do I need to do?” she told the outlet.
“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.”
Lopez said the joke hit close to home as she had friends and relatives deported because they were in the country illegally.
In January, 84 illegal immigrants were arrested during an ICE raid in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to Fox 4.
The outraged customer reported the joke to the store’s manager, who told her there would be a team meeting to ensure it didn’t happen again, CBS Texas reported.
Lopez called for the unidentified barista to be fired over the comment.
“I work as a manager. If someone on my team did something like that, I would fire her immediately,” she said.
Community activists soon heard about the story and began planning a gathering at the store to meet the “author of the offensive joke,” Dallas-based protester Carlos Quintanilla wrote on Facebook.
Quintanilla planned for other protesters to arrive at the shopping center at 10 a.m. on June 28.
An hour later, he canceled the gathering after no one showed up.
However, he still walked into the Target, livestreaming for his Facebook followers, in search of the Starbucks, but was stopped by a store employee who told him to leave the building because he was recording inside.
“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!”
The Post has reached out to Starbucks and Target.
Quintanilla defended the illegal immigrants living in his community while outside the store.
“It’s not just inappropriate, it’s disturbing,” he told CBS Texas. “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.”
