An IHOP in Austin, Texas has made a couple upset after they were issued a racist receipt. In the description section of the receipt, the words stated were "BLACK PPL," something that the couple didn't ever expect to find.
According to Yahoo News, Ariana Brown and Rolman Sparkman went to IHOP Monday morning to pick up an order. After paying for their to-go order, they looked at the receipt and were aghast at finding the label "BLACK PPL" on top, which could have had other forms of labels to refer to them.
In an interview over the incident, Brown told KVUE, "I feel upset, I'm sad, I'm angry." She added, "Like this, it makes no sense. You could have asked me my name."
Right after discovering the racist receipt, Brown and boyfriend, Sparkman, went home without saying a word to the employees of the restaurant. She instead posted the photo of the racist receipt on Facebook, and it was shared on social media a thousand of times.
Reports have it that restaurants often use shorthand to identify their customers. Many restaurants would ask the name of the customer for identification. However, when race, sexual orientation or skin color become labels, it becomes unacceptable.
Fox News reported that when the racist receipt incident reached IHOP's corporate headquarters, the company was quick to condemn the act of the employee. In a statement, it said, "This was a poor choice made by our franchisee's team member, and is not in keeping with policies and procedures. We recognize that it could be offensive and apologize." The statement also mentioned, "Everyone is welcome in our restaurants and our franchisee is using this as a teachable moment for the entire team so that it will not reoccur."
The waiter, Dwayne Williams, who attended to the couple is, much to the surprise of everyone, also black. Williams also apologized on Facebook about the IHOP racist receipt incident and was sorry if he offended anyone.
