A Massachusetts coffee shop publicly apologized after a black journalist was denied service in a case of mistaken identity.
Caffe Nero in Cambridge issued an apology to retired investigative reporter Philip Martin after a barista told him she had been instructed not to serve him, reported Boston.com.
Martin told the outlet that the barista claimed the cafe had him on tape exhibiting unsavory behavior toward their employees.
‘I was aghast,’ he said, describing the confrontation on November 20 as ‘humiliating.’
Martin tried to argue his innocence to the employee, but the dispute resulted in both parties calling the police.
The 71-year-old was an award-winning reporter for GBH for twenty years.
During his time there, he frequently reported on the disproportionate effects of misidentification on black men.
Police officers who responded to the scene determined that it was all a misunderstanding and allowed Martin to stay in the store after speaking with him and the barista separately.
Retired investigative journalist Phillip Martin was at Caffe Nero in Cambridge when he was denied service
A spokesman for the Cambridge Police Department told the Boston Globe that officers had responded to ‘what was initially reported to be an Unwanted Person.’
Determined not to let the jarring misunderstanding ruin his day, Martin returned to the cafe to meet with fellow journalist Naomi Kooker.
A Caffe Nero representative further explained the interaction in a statement to the Globe, calling it ‘a genuine case of mistaken identity.’
The statement said that Martin’s height, facial hair, glasses, and build were similar to ‘a customer who had been responsible for significant anti-social behavior previously.’
Martin’s apparent doppelgänger had been previously thrown from the store for being ‘abusive’ to staff and peeing indoors.
Caffe Nero will conduct anti-discrimination and harassment training for the Cambridge store to prevent racially charged incidents in the future.
An employee of Caffe Nero in Cambridge mistook Martin for a customer who had previously disrupted the store
‘Everyone at Caffè Nero is deeply sorry for the behavior towards Mr. Martin, which should not have happened,’ the coffee chain said. ‘Even though it was a genuine error driven by a recent prior experience.’
The company told the Daily Mail, ‘It was a misunderstanding which was resolved with the customer.’
Even the COO of Caffe Nero Americas, Paul Morgan, personally apologized to Martin.
‘This was not acceptable, and we are taking this very seriously. Our goal is to ensure that this cannot happen again,’ he told Martin in a statement obtained by GBH News.
Martin returned to the cafe a few days later to meet with other corporate representatives for a personal apology, which he accepted.
‘I told them I had no interest whatsoever in anyone being fired over this,’ he explained.
Ceffe Nero Americas COO Paul Morgan explained that anti-discrimination training is conducted for all team members every year
Martin was given the chance to review images of his rumored lookalike but struggled to find any similarities.
He hopes this incident will be a lesson on internalized racism for Caffe Nero and other organizations, and added that he wants his experience to open up conversations about the dangers of misidentification.
The former journalist flagged the issue to the Cambridge Human Rights Commission and the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination in hopes of continuing to combat the problem.
To Martin’s point, black people are often misidentified in much more serious cases.
According to the Innocence Project, a 2022 report found that innocent black people were seven times more likely to be wrongly convicted of murder than innocent white people.
The Daily Mail contacted Martin and Cambridge Police for comment.
