“A man who said he found a homophobic slur printed on his receipt from downtown Portland’s Apple Store wants the company to respond by offering cultural competency training for its employees,” Kelly House reports for The Oregonian.
“Adam Catanzarite, who self-identifies as queer… sparked a widespread social media response after he posted a photo to Facebook Tuesday showing a July 8 Apple Store receipt that bears his name,” House reports. “The photo shows ‘f@g.com’ in the space where the customer’s email should appear on the receipt.”
“In his interview with The Oregonian, Catanzarite said the situation arose after he visited the store to buy a $29 earphone set. Catanzarite said a store employee asked him to provide his email address, but he declined to do so,” House reports. “Initially, he didn’t notice the characters printed on the space reserved for his email address. ‘With most receipts, I just stuff it in my backpack and only pull it out when needed,’ he said. Days later, he discovered the characters, which he interpreted as an anti-gay slur with the letter ‘a’ changed to ‘@.'”
House reports, “Catanzarite said he hasn’t heard from Apple regarding how or why the slur appeared on his receipt but in this case, he said, the employee’s intent doesn’t matter.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “The employee’s intent doesn’t matter.”
Life must be so enjoyable for the permanently indignant/perpetually slighted wrapped in their warped cocoons of political correctness gone absurdly amuck.
In the words of good parents everywhere: “Son, you need to grow a thicker skin or this world is going to grind you to a pulp.”
If the intent was there and proven, obviously, Apple should discipline the employee. Nobody should be slurring anybody else anywhere. That’s in bold because it overrides everything else in this Take and we want to make sure that the the permanently indignant/perpetually slighted see it (not that it will matter).
But, as far as employee discipline goes, to say out of hand that “the employee’s intent doesn’t matter,” is stupefying. What if the Apple employee just quickly tapped in a random quick entry to fill the field (the “f” and “g” keys are right next to each other, after all)? Does Catanzarite still deserve refunds and the opportunity to lead “cultural competency training” for the store’s staff (see full article)? What’s next, ‘your employee looked at me funny, so I want a refund and a soapbox upon which to stand, so I can teach your employees how to offer everyone innocuous blank stares? (That’ll work for 30 seconds until the next customer complains of the employee’s coldness and callousness and offers to lead classes in compassion.)
Sheesh. This world sometimes. Would that everyone would just chill for a change. Live and let live. TGIF.
Again: If the intent was there and proven, obviously, Apple should discipline the employee. Nobody should be slurring anybody else anywhere.
Addendum: 12:25pm EDT: We certainly agree with the comment from “macmuchmore” (below) that, regardless of the employee’s intent, Apple should apologize to the offended customer. If any customer claims to be offended, a good business should always apologize, even if it was nothing more than a random entry.
It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway) that Apple should not require an entry in a field for employees to proceed if a customer declines to give optional information like an email address (if that, indeed is how that system works) and employees should be instructed to simply leave optional fields blank.
Addendum: 12:47pm EDT: We’re dealing with a number of issues here:
1. The employee. Unless they confess, there’s no way to proven they meant it as a slur and Apple should not take action against the employee. If Apple did, the employee could sue Apple. This is where the intent matters.
2. Political correctness. Obviously, we’re tired of it. There’s a line somewhere, but some people live to cross it.
3. The customer. Deserves an apology from Apple if they are offended regardless of the employee’s intent. Does not deserve a refund or anything further unless the employee confesses they intended to slur the customer. Deserves a refund and perhaps a lawsuit win if the Apple employee confesses they intended the email address they entered as a slur.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
When an email address is required and I don’t want to put one, I have always used f@t.com because it was quick to type. I have worked at an apple store and probably typed that in to some customer records without even thinking about it and how the customer might feel if they had seen that. Reading this now, I feel bad that someone could have been offended, but there was no malicious intent on my part to be mean to anyone. I was young and it was funny that the email address spelled fat, but it was not meant to be derogatory to anyone.
Also when I worked there, customs and sometimes the employees would put funny names in the genius bar que so the geniuses would call out things like Ima Rock.
Should an employee use offensive phrases for email addresses, no. Do I think the employee had an intent to be mean by using f@g.com, it is possible, but it is also possible there was no intent there at all.
Apple should investigate and issue an apology to the person. If an evil (or even stupid joke) intent was found, the employee should be disciplined. But the guy doesn’t deserve free headphones, especially since he wasn’t even aware of the alleged slur until much later.
Keep in mind that I’m in favor of Apple’s pro gay rights policies and actions when I say . . . this was a setup.
I believe he filled in the spot himself claiming not to see it till later in order to gain attention, and maybe money.
When he walked into the store the only thing he bought was a “a $29 earphone set.” (EarPods) Probably the only thing what will work on his Android phone.
Yeah, and MH-370 was hijacked by Elvis and flown to Shangri-La 😉
Elvis isn’t dead, he just went home. 🙂
that is where he went when he left the building?????
As someone posted, what a non-issue in today’s age. Also whatever happened to ‘Innocent before proven guilty’???
Apple can talk to the employee and decide what it wants to do. Period.
How does this trivial crap get into the news anyway?
If the shoe fits the fairy, wear it.
Does he think everyone is going to approve?
In Canada there have been constitutional protections for the LGBT community for many years , they have been accepted in the armed forces for almost 30 years and gay marriage has been a fact of life for years including marriages in churches .
There are many acceptable words and phrases to describe members go the LGBT community but “Queer” is not one of them .
It seems to me that the complainant in this case needs sensitivity training
“1. The employee. Unless they confess, there’s no way to proven they meant it as a slur and Apple should not take action against the employee.”
That’s not even close to being right. Suppose the employee doesn’t confess, but has done the same thing before. Suppose the employee has been arrested for beating up gay men. Suppose the employee has made homophobic comments to other Apple employees. Suppose the Apple employee already knew the customer, and has a grudge against him. Etc.
All we can be certain about is that Apple didn’t authorize any homophobic comments/acts by its employees. The rest will come out in an investigation.
Independent of the f@g incident, why was the Apple Store asking for the customer’s email address? If the customer already owns an iPhone or iPad, it is almost certain that Apple already has his/her email address. So why slow down the check-out process with this step in the first instance?
It’s a bit hard to accidentally type fag with an @ symbol in the middle. MDN is trying too hard here to be homophobic without appearing to be homophobic. Your bad MSN…
MDN has always been homophobic.
Just like the Apple store employee in this case.
I love a wiener wedged betwixt soft buns, squirt o’ mustard, and top it with some hot chili. Mmmm, man I could suck down three every day, unless they’re foot-long, then oh, that would hurt to force three down my throat. What.
What people do in their kitchens really is no one else’s business.
You want to talk about “permanently indignant/perpetually slighted”, MDN? How about your idol, Rush Limbaugh (and the entire right-wing media bubble) as the ultimate example of just that?
I guess when it’s old heterosexual white guys being “permanently indignant/perpetually slighted”, that’s fine with you, because it’s “patriotism” or something.
Wish I had nothing better to do with my time than cry over nothing, actually, I don’t . Suck it up princess. Boo-hoo.
reading about this on a few websites I’ve finally got to say:
it’s totally bizarro if anybody would put a slur on a written record that can be so easily traced back to him…
Unless the apple guy is a total doofus I say accidental typing.
I own a business that caters to the public. If I found that an employee of mine had filled out the email address as such, I would take a long hard look at that employee. Instinct tells me that this was intentional and while I would respect the rights and due process of said employee, I would hold a face to face chat and explain the rules of the game. As the boss, I would assume my employee liable and depending on how this person responds… a little more monitoring could be in order. It’s my customer’s feelings, my business and my bottom line I am protecting here and if an employee is out of line… they will pay the consequences of their action.
Ever notice that the word gay is yag backwards? Replace the ‘y’ with ‘f’ and what do you get?
Really? People.