A woman in Texas is demanding action after a Starbucks employee wrote an "offensive" joke on the lid of her drink. According to the New York Post, Blanca Lopez, who is Hispanic, went to a Starbucks inside a Target store in Irving on June 23 and ordered a horchata latte. When the drink came out, one of her daughters noticed something odd scribbled in black marker across the clear lid. The message on the lid read, "What do you call a sick eagle? Illegal."
Ms Lopez said she was confused and offended by the comment. "It's basically saying that we are sick, illegal individuals that do not belong in this country," she said, per the outlet.
She also recalled her confusion when she first saw the message, unsure if it 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 said.
"Why did they call me that? Why are they asking if I have papers or no papers? Why did she write this? For me, like, it's offensive," she added.
Ms Lopez said that the joke struck a nerve as she had friends and relatives deported because they were in the country illegally. After seeing the message, she reported the joke to the store's manager. She said that the manager promised to hold a team meeting to prevent anything like this from happening again. But she didn't think that was enough. Ahe called for the unidentified employee 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.
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Meanwhile, a local activist Carlos Quintanilla took to Facebook and informed about the protest at the store to confront the employee behind the message. But when no one showed up, he cancelled the protest but still went inside the store and livestreamed for his Facebook followers.
"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," he wrote.
"Let's suspend our protest in forgiveness and let's Protest in Silence!" he added.
