Landmark Steakhouse, California Restaurant, Settles Suit With Black Businessman After It Printed Slurs On His Receipts

A restaurant in and affluent California enclave has reportedly settle a federal suit with an African-American man who said the company referred to him with racial epithets on his credit card receipts.

According to the Orange County Weekly, lawyers representing Mark McHenry, a successful black businessman, agreed to terms with the restaurant's lawyers. In the suit, McHenry said that he had been a regular customer of the popular restaurant since moving to the town. When he went home after one visit, he said he looked at his receipts to find slurs in the place where his name should have been.

You can see photocopies of the receipts here. One of them reads "Mc Stinkynigger" and the other reads "McNigshit."

The case was supposed to go to a jury next month. The terms of the settlement were not made public.

After McHenry's lawyer's discovered other cases in which racial epithets had been used by Landmark employees, the restaurant's lawyers attempted to block efforts to check more Landmark receipts to determine whether there was a systematic use of racial epithets.

Last year, the restaurant's owner said that an employee was fired after the incident.

"It's not something we condone or foster in any way," Marovic said of the claims of racism. "I don't know how this could have happened. It really upsets me. We would have resolved this situation immediately" if he'd been aware of the allegations.

Comments

[Sophie Sophie]

02:48 PM on 02/21/2012

This also happened to two other Asian customers on two separate ocassions at a Chick Fillet and Papa Johns. Racism is ingrained in white people, as a result of centuries of white privelege it has become part of their nature. From an early age white children either knowingly or unknowingly are conditioned by their parents to believe that their skin color makes them better than those of others. In this case the whole concept of white privelege is turned upside down, a sucessful black business man being served by a minimum wage white waiter who in all likelihood also happens to be male. The white male waiter can't stand the fact that he has to serve a wealthy black man so he lashes out in the best way he knows how, through racism. A recent example is the ESPN announcer who thought he was being clever by the use of "chink in the armor" as a double entendre to describe Jeremy Lin.This white male can't stand the fact that this Asian male is becoming sucessful and so decided to knock him down a peg. White males are by nature agresssive, bigoted and racist (some are just better at supressing their prejudicial thoughts than others) I think by and large white people have been conditioned this way by the imbalance of power in the world since European civilization and culture became the most dominant in the decades following 1492.

[crazyindc1984]

11:12 PM on 02/21/2012

You are racist for this post, and have no clue about the real world, except through your narrow slanted view.
Some people from all races are racist. There is not a single race that racism comes from, nor is their a race that no racism exists in. To say that all white people are racist, that it is basically ingrained in their upbringing is ridiculous, and as I stated, racist in and of itself. Thank you for showing another ignorant person holding back the world from forgetting these ridiculous stereotypes and hatred for races other than their own.

[NikkiS]

05:16 PM on 02/22/2012

Having lived in Orange County, I can say without a doubt that it is probably the most racist place in California. And I agree, most white people do expect some type of privelege as a result of skin color and feel threatened when blacks attain positions of power over them, i.e., black customer, white waiter.

[Karen Karen]

11:44 PM on 02/18/2012

Wow. Some prejudiced/racist people are so stupid. Good for the customer, what he won, was deserved.

[WRR01]

07:39 AM on 02/18/2012

I have an idea; go to a rest. and get a waiter to write racial slurs on my reciept.I will file a lawsuit,get paid,and then pay off the waiter for doing such a fine job for me.

[blahblahblah30]

02:40 PM on 02/17/2012

to the people who approve of comments first. get a life. ive said nothing wrong and you dont let me post screw you....

[KatyKat]

12:51 PM on 02/17/2012

The ethnicity of the owner and most probably the person who printed the receipts is WHITE. If you've never been to Orange County, you need to know that as a person of color, you might think you'd landed in deepest, darkest 1960 Mississippi. White people have made Orange County their own personal VanillaLand and they aren't interested in seeing ANY black people there, even if only passing thru. This behavior doesn't surprise me at all because Orange County has had some of the most rabid racists you'd ever encounter, and its been that way for years. A friend of mine taught school there for many years and the horror stories she shared were beyond scandalous. This is not new.

[Zanita Washington]

01:45 PM on 02/17/2012

Hmm only in Orange county .. I hear this word everyday.. In school, work, radio,Walamart, TV. OH Its because a White person used it.. Lets face it Blacks use it a million times more than WHITES. Shhh Whites buy into this. P Diddy walks in the an Atlanta Night Club N word all over and its ok we shew it away. whites stand by and the word flies take their job and their money. Whites are fool to pay OUR dues but when the truth is revealed no one will be paying our bills. REAL

[sgtm7]

06:56 PM on 02/17/2012

I know nothing about Orange County. However you would think that if the person who did it was white, they would have said as much either in this article or in one of the links to other articles. Like I said before, I am always suspicious about what is left out of an article. Especially when it comes to newspapers trying to get people to read their articles. Many times they will use an attention getting headline to get readers.

[sgtm7]

01:08 AM on 02/17/2012

I am always curious about what isn't said, more so than what is said. Everyone is assuming, but it hasn't been reported. What is the race of the people who put these words on the receipts?

[rabb046]

10:41 AM on 02/17/2012

Hmmmmmm.
I wonder.

[Mark Gunn]

09:38 PM on 02/16/2012

I remember doing an interview with producer Terry Lewis of The Time and he talked about how hard it was for a Black man to catch a cab in New York. Here's one of the most prolific record producers of a generation, well dressed (suit and tie) and he couldn't get a cab. He summed it up when he said "Lord I don't feel like being Black today."

[oregonian68]

03:45 PM on 02/16/2012

The owner of that restaurant was victimized by the employee first, then the litigant. How was he to know he hired a racist?

[jamesfloen48]

01:07 PM on 02/16/2012

The most dangerous stunt that a black person can perform is to eat out. Whether its fast food or high end. black people still runnin around like were really accepted and that people got love for us.The first thing that a brainwashed person will say. "That aint true,everybody aint like that".Keep eatin out and trusting people. Whether you wanna believe it or not. We are hated people. And to let somebody mess with something that I'm gonna put in body.I dont think so.

[Terese Campbell]

02:23 PM on 02/16/2012

This is EXACTLY the reason my paternal grandmother REFUSED to eat at restaurants.

[oregonian68]

03:46 PM on 02/16/2012

It was pretty dangerous for a white person to eat at the restaurant Jesse Jackson worked at, when he boasted of spitting in white people's food.

[bg3]

03:54 PM on 02/16/2012

that doesnt count

[Cakey4814]

12:53 PM on 02/16/2012

That's the way you handle it Mr. McHenry..hit them where it hurts because I don't believe the owner. This is what it progressed to when he wasn't checked for saying something similar or the same before..

[bg3]

03:55 PM on 02/16/2012

so if a white kid worked at a black owned business, youy have no problem with the black owner losing everything I guess

[Cakey4814]

08:18 AM on 02/17/2012

What you racist come up with to justify your racism is astounding. Not even going to answer that stupid question that has nothing whatsoever to do with Mr. McHenry's treatment..

[kchybrown]

08:36 AM on 02/16/2012

Sounds as if a ignorant teenager from a cartoon wrote the sayings, was the employee white or mexican can't imigine a white person being so under creative as to print it on the customers reciept sounds like they were the mcnigger in a sandwich, plain dumb for this era and time!!!

[PTerrys]

06:48 PM on 02/16/2012

i mean they have white privilege and work as a waiter... what do u expect?

also that word is as popular as ever

[Frank Bourne]

08:23 AM on 02/16/2012

>>> "One of them reads "Mc Stinkynigger" and the other reads "McNigshit."

LOL

[oregonian68]

03:48 PM on 02/16/2012

How is that the fault of the owner? Why would the owner risk losing his business? The owner was victimized twice and no one seems to have any compassion for him.

[Paul Moreno]

03:07 PM on 03/25/2012

respondeat superior.

[gerentrans]

07:14 AM on 02/16/2012

I hope he doesnt die of cancer in a few years from whatever they put in that food.

[bg3]

03:56 PM on 02/16/2012

wonder how the white guy whos food jessee jackson said he spit on is doing?

[gerentrans]

04:01 PM on 02/16/2012

uhn ?

[gerentrans]

07:12 AM on 02/16/2012

This is too dumb to have happened.
It,s like winning the lottery without actually playing it

[quaknbush7455358]

05:26 AM on 02/16/2012

In response to the restaurant in California its high time that everyone knows that we are in a new era and a new century and racial slurs of the past WILL NOT BE TOLERATED so insert your foot in your mouth and you will pay need i say more?

[oregonian68]

03:49 PM on 02/16/2012

Except slurs against white people, especially lower income.

[quaknbush7455358]

09:52 PM on 02/16/2012

SLURS IS NOT EXCEPTABLE BY ANYONE AND INTELLIGENT PEOPLE KNOWS THIS ITS THE LOW CLASS UNINFORMED ONES WHO CONDONES THIS