The employee justified and said it wasn’t a “deliberate act, but an unfortunate mistake’

Image Source – Google | Image by Kris Di

A Muslim teenage girl felt ‘discriminated’ after a Starbucks barista wrote ‘ISIS’ on her order. The incident occurred when Aisha, from Minneapolis-ST Paul, visited the Target store on her way back to college with her friend on July 1st. 

The 19-year-old claimed that she didn’t even tell her name, and the target had already started writing something on her cup and hiding it from her view.

Aisha narrated the whole incident here:

After getting a coffee cup, the girl said she was ‘in shock’ to find ‘ISIS’ written as her name on the order. ISIS is an acronym of a famous Islamic State terrorist organization.

“I felt humiliated. I felt enraged,” Aisha said.

Speaking in a press conference on Monday, Aisha mentioned that she was wearing a hijab at the time she visited the coffee store, which evidently reflected her faith.

“The word that was written on the drink is a word that shatters the Muslim reputation all around the world,” the teenager said.

When she inquired about it from the barista, he reportedly claimed that he didn’t get her name clearly. Aisha said that the manager didn’t take any action against the target, in fact, supported him, saying that it was a “mistake”.

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) is now representing Aisha, as she filed a charge against the target to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights on Monday.

The manager of the store told the teenager, “What is the issue? People get their name wrong all the time,” according to Jaylani Hussein, The CAIR-MN’S executive director.

Hussein explained, “Unfortunately, with Islamophobia, the number one thing Muslims are…. Discriminatorily identified (as) is terrorists…. Using this word for us would be the same as a Black man today being (called) the N-word.”

Regardless of making the teenager feel humiliated, enraged and belittled, the store manager apparently believed that he could compensate her feelings with one exchange drink and a $25 gift card.

She has since filed a lawsuit, but she hasn’t received any form of apology or guilt from the Target.

The company claimed that they have already issued her an apology, stating, “Taking appropriate actions with the team member, including additional training, to ensure this does not occur again.”

Their statement reads:

“At Target, we want everyone who shops with us to feel welcomed, valued and respected and we strictly prohibit discrimination and harassment in any form. We are very sorry for this guest’s experience at our store and immediately apologized to her when she made our store leaders aware of the situation. We have investigated the matter and believe that it was not a deliberate act, but an unfortunate mistake that could have been avoided with a simple clarification. We’re taking appropriate actions with the team members, including additional training, to ensure this does not occur again.”

Hussein rejected the explanation by saying, “This is not a simple mistake. No one puts, you know, the “KKK” on the cup of somebody’s drink.”

Starbucks refused to comment on the incident, with a representative telling CNN that the Starbucks is located under a Target and the particular Target is entirely responsible for its operations.