An outpouring of social media support has been offered to a Cairns café worker after a customer told her she didn’t want to be served by her because of the colour of her skin.
Josie Ajak, who is originally from South Sudan but came to Australia as an eight-year-old, was at work in her Gloria Jeans café when an elderly lady came to the counter but before placing her coffee order said she would like somebody else to serve her.
“This elderly woman approached the counter in a wheelchair and I greeted her as I would anyone else,” Ms Ajak told the ABC about the incident.
“She just looked at me and said ‘I refuse to be served by a black person, can you get me a white lady?'”
Upset by the request but refusing to bow down to the bigotry Ms Ajak politely asked the woman to move aside so she could serve other customers.
“A staff member beside me was looking at me wondering what was going on. I just looked back and said ‘this lady is racist and we won’t be serving her’,” Ms Ajak said.
The woman apparently waited for several minutes for somebody else to take her order but eventually left.
After being told about the actions of the racist woman Ms Ajak’s friend, Jade Arevalo took to Facebook to vent about the incident in a post that has gone viral.
“Josie is one of the most kind and friendly people you could meet but irrespective of her character, she did not deserve to be excluded like this,” Ms Arevalo wrote.
And many seem to agree with the post attracting hundreds of shares and thousands of comments.
One user wrote: “Please don’t think that this ignorant woman’s comment in any way reflects the majority of peoples opinion. I don’t care what colour your skin is…I just want coffee!”
Another added: “We are all from the human race. Josie is a beautiful example of a human being and I’m sorry she had to experience that level of stupidity.”
Ms Ajak says the outpouring of support has been heart-warming after such an awful experience.
Josie told the ABC: “I’d like to thank them because racism is a massive problem in the world … inside we’re all the same and I’m glad all those people posting agree with that.”
