Slur Brings Lawsuit

I think we can all agree that it was wrong for a Hooters restaurant employee to refer to an Asian-American couple as "Chinx."

I think we can all agree that it was stupid of the employee to type "Chinx" in the place on the receipt that IDs their customers.

I think we can all agree that the server responsible should be either disciplined or fired.

But can we also agree that it would be wrong and conniving for the victim of this slur to collect a cash settlement for the pain and suffering he allegedly endured for having been referred to in this way by a Hooters server?

I mean really.

Kisuk Cha, of Philadelphia, an unemployed computer programmer who immigrated to the U.S. 12 years ago, certainly has learned a thing or two about the ways of America. He has learned that when one is the victim of the ignorant stupidity of a 17-year-old girl you go after her employer and try to get money. That is the American way.

According to the story :

In the lawsuit, which was filed Monday afternoon in federal court in Brooklyn, Mr. Cha’s lawyer, Daniel D. Baek, elaborated:

“He was so overwhelmed that he just wanted to go to bed to sleep, but was too angry to do so,” Mr. Baek wrote. “This incident has continued to cause him mental anguish. He is haunted by the ridiculing giggles and stares of his persecutor. He does not feel welcome at Hooters and indeed questions whether he is welcomed at any non-Korean establishments.”

The lawsuit names the chain’s parent company, Hooters of America, and the owners of the Hooters franchise in Fresh Meadows. It also includes two employees, one of whom is unidentified and the other of whom is identified only by the name she printed on the receipt, “220 Shenika.” It seeks unspecified damages for violations to Mr. Cha’s “federal, state and common law rights.”

In an interview with New York Times, Mr. Cha said that he was so "distraught" after reading his receipt that he couldn't eat and had to throw the food away.

Hooters corporate launched an immediate investigation. The 17-year-old, ID'ed only by her signing the receipt "220 Shenika," admitted her responsibility and resigned.

So now we have two people out of work. Mr. Cha and "Shenika."

Now, can we all agree that it is likely that Shenika, based on her name alone, is African-American? If so, can we also agree that the number of young African-Americans who are out of work in this country is a national tragedy? As of June the black unemployment rate was over 14 percent. For teenage black kids it's a staggering 39.3.

Wouldn't a better outcome of this situation have been for Mr. Cha to have informed Hooters that a young employee had ignorantly used a racial slur to identify him and his girlfriend and had been so dumb as to put it on a receipt? Mr. Cha then could have suggested this girl be talked to and properly trained so as to avoid such a regrettable mistake in the future. That way, she might have been able to keep her job and learned something to boot.

But then Mr. Cha would have had to foregone the possibility of a cash settlement for his pain and anguish at the hands of a 17-year-old girl. And his lawyer, one Daniel D. Baek, wouldn't have been able to get his name into the New York Times for correcting this important civil rights violation.

Meanwhile, thousands of Asian-Americans in this country today are routinely discriminated against by institutions of higher learning in the name of "diversity." Asian Americans who have better grades and test scores are turned down for admission to elite colleges by admissions officers so that lower-performing, whites, blacks and hispanics can be admitted. 

For more on that story read this.

The department’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating a complaint it received in August that Harvard rejected an Asian-American candidate for the current freshman class based on race or national origin, a department spokesman said. The agency is looking into a similar August 2011 allegation against Princeton as part of a review begun in 2008 of that school’s handling of Asian-American candidates, said the spokesman, who declined to be identified, citing department policy.

The U.S. Education Department is probing complaints that Harvard University and Princeton University discriminate against Asian-Americans in undergraduate admissions.

Hooters obviously takes claims of ethnic discrimination against Asians more seriously than Princeton and Harvard. But then these schools would no doubt be more sensitive in their handling of a young black student who showed Shenika's sort of ignorance toward a fellow classmate. She would be counseled, not thrown out of school.