Photos Courtesy of April Jackson / Facebook
A Black mother in North Carolina is furious after a Chick-fil-A employee misspelled her daughter’s name, putting “Niger” on the receipt’s guest name slot. She’s demanding the restaurant fire that employee for racial abuse.
April Jackson posted about her 19-year-old daughter’s triggering experience at the fast-food restaurant on Facebook, adding a picture of the ticket taped to her cup with the word “Niger” in the guest name line.
“This is really bothering me. My daughter just left from Chick-fil-A off Brookshire, and this what the employee put for her name, and it’s black history month,” April wrote in the post.
April’s daughter, Nyiashia, arrived at a Chick-fil-A off Brookshire Blvd and went through the drive-through. Many locations operate with employees outside, ready to take customers’ orders to speed up the drive-through process. The first thing they request is a name for the order. When taking Nyiashia’s order, the employee did not ask how to spell the 19-year-old’s name.
Before another employee handed Nyiashia her items at the drive-through window, he warned her to look at the word an employee put as Nyiashia’s name for the order. It was on the cup and bag.
“He was like, ‘You might want to look what they put your name as,'” Nyiashia told WSOC-TV. “I was just in shock. I literally parked right there. I couldn’t eat the food; I was just in shock.”
It’s known that “n***er” and “Niger” are pronounced entirely differently. Now, “Niger” and “Nyiashia” could sound similar (despite one having two syllables and the other having three) if it wasn’t enunciated. Even How To Pronounce’s pronunciation of Nyiashia’s name sound similar to a slurred version of “Niger” (like “Niga”).
But not many people in the drive-through articulate their name, especially since telling someone their name is second nature, and customers are trying to get through the ordering process to start eating. Had the employee asked for clarification or how to spell her name, the situation would’ve been avoided.
Chick-fil-A gave a statement regarding the incident.
“The Operator/Owner of Chick-fil-A Mountain Island has thoroughly investigated and tried to connect with the customer to better understand her experience and apologize for the situation,” the statement read. “Though we understand this to be a misspelling of the customer’s name, that does not negate the impact or experience had by our guests. The Operator has started additional training at his restaurant to ensure this doesn’t happen again. We sincerely apologize for the harm caused by this incident.”
Chick-fil-A said they tried talking to the Jackson family but had no luck. April said she doesn’t want to speak with the restaurant and plans to pursue legal action.