Man Finds Racial Slur Printed On Receipt

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas City man found a racial slur printed on his receipt after returning a pair of shoes he bought over the weekend.KMBC's Marcus Moore reported that Keith Slater, 22, bought a pair of shoes from a store called Journeys. Slater later returned them after finding a cheaper pair at another store. Slater did get his money back, but it was what was printed on the receipt that he and his family found disturbing."That makes me upset. I don't want to look at that (receipt,) that makes me so upset. Why would you say that?" said a woman who was shown the receipt.
"Have they been fired? I mean, this is absolutely crazy," said a man who saw the store ticket.The receipt, which shows "Cust: Dumb" and then the n-word, is what Slater received after returning a pair of shoes to Journeys at Oak Park Mall."When he showed me that receipt, I could not believe it," said Slater's mother, Linda. "He couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. None of us got any sleep just thinking about it."By the time the Slaters noticed the racial slur printed on the receipt, the store was already closed for the day.Hoping to get answers about how the words got on the receipt, the Slaters returned to the store the next day. But they said they never got a full explanation, only that the employee entered a generic code."And it pulled up six or seven different choices, and the choice that she (the employee) chose was the very last choice," said Slater's father, Keith."I really don't doubt that this is the first time it happened. I'm sure it's happened before, but this is probably the first time that somebody noticed their receipt and came back and asked about it," Linda Slater said.The Slaters said they are waiting for answers."To me, the appropriate thing to do is to terminate the employee because it's just inappropriate for that to be there, and then to have that deleted from their system," Keith Slater said.The Slaters also filed a complaint with mall security.A representative with the U.S. Department of Justice told KMBC that it will refer the case to the FBI to investigate whether a civil rights violation has occurred.

Store Owner Issues Statement

On Tuesday, Genesco, which owns Journeys, released this statement:"While we are continuing to investigate this incident, it now appears that an employee in one of our stores entered highly inappropriate statements in a form used to process a merchandise return. Needless to say, such an act was not authorized by Journeys, and will not be tolerated. This employee has been terminated."At Journeys, we pride ourselves on valuing and respecting every customer. We are shocked and sickened that a former associate could be responsible for an act so out of keeping with our culture and our values. We profoundly regret this incident."

Community Activist Boycotts Store

On Wednesday, community activist Alonzo Washington held a news conference to announce that he and his family will no longer shop at Journeys, and they are asking others to do the same.Washington said his family is returning several shirts that were purchased at Journeys a few days before the Slater incident.Washington said the store's apology to Slater was not enough.Washington's wife, Dana Washington, said she is concerned about a culture of race problems."My kids are looking at this wondering why would a person do something like this. It's unfortunate that African-Americans still have to go through these experiences today, because unfortunately, not everyone has arrived at the point where we should treat each other fairly," Dana Washington said.

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