Wave Of Change After Smoothie King Racist Remarks

CHARLOTTE, NC– Locals snapped back at racist Smoothie King employees in Charlotte, exposing them on social media and creating a wave of change.

Two men say employees wrote the “N-word” and “Jackie Chan” as the customer name on their receipts.

Both incidents happened Sunday at two different Smoothie King locations in Charlotte.

One happened at 8439 Davis Lake Parkway. Another happened at 8150 Mt. Holly Huntersville Rd.

Tony Choi says he took his kids to get smoothies Sunday night and saw employees giggling at the name on the receipt. That’s when he realized it said “Jackie Chan”.

“They thought they were being funny, but they don’t realize that some of their jokes can hurt people,” said Choi.

He posted it on social media.

So did the man the employee called n*****.

We noticed at WCCB Charlotte and called Smoothie King.

The company says it fired both employees.

The Charlotte stores closed Monday. The corporate spokesperson says they will remain closed for Tuesday and possibly Wednesday while employees complete training.

Smoothie King says it has updated its current program to focus more on cultural diversity and sensitivity education. It will teach this at stores across the U.S. in the coming weeks.

Smoothie King says it will not close stores across the U.S. to train like it is at the two Charlotte locations.

Choi’s family says the parents of the local teen employees need to educate them.

“Everyone’s a person. Everyone is just out here living their life, and you need to be sensitive to these subjects. It’s not a joke,” said Danielle Palladino. “I think we need to teach our kids we can’t look at people based off their skin color.”

Choi says corporate Smoothie King and the local franchise owner called him to apologize.
He says he won’t go back again.

“I don’t think Smoothie King has anything special where it’s like, ‘Oh my God! I gotta go to Smoothie King.’ You know? There’s so many other options,” said Choi.