(Image Source: Twitpic)

BY MADISON MACK

ANCHOR LAUREN ZIMA

24-year-old Minhee Cho visited her local, New York Papa John’s for a Friday-night dinner. What she got was casual racism that sets the Internet ablaze.

Cho noticed the receipt she received with her order gave her name as -  “lady chinky eyes.”

Cho posted a picture of the receipt to her Twitter account, where it went viral -- it was viewed more than 100,000 times in less than four hours.

Papa Johns has issued an official apology via Facebook and Twitter and vowed to fire the employee responsible.

But more interesting are some of the comments made by the store’s management. Like Ronald Johnson, the operating partner who runs the Harlem-based store. He told The Gothamist, the teen employee responsible was misled by  “hip hop culture.”

“‘When I googled the phrase, all these songs came up. These kids bring their baggage into the store with them. I don’t know if I should fire her.’ … He reasoned that the cashier, a high schooler who works for minimum wage, could benefit more if she got sensitivity training, and if he took the time to help her understand what was offensive about what she wrote...”

Cho’s Twitter posting inspired a campaign of prank callers, calling the restaurant and trying to order Chinese food. A store manager identified as Jerome told the New York Post the phone traffic was affecting business.

“This is a place of business. … I think the lady put it out there just to get some attention -- some people like that type of attention. I truly don’t think it’s fair. It’s been taking up all our time. It’s been very disruptive.”

And Mediate reports, this is the second incident involving Asian-American directed racism to occur at a fast food joint in recent weeks.

“… In December, a Chick-fil-A in Irvine, California gave two Asian-American students receipts with the terms ‘Ching’ and ‘Chong’.”