Actress Thandie Newton took to Twitter to complain about Starbucks, but it wasn’t because of red holiday cups or because a barista spelled her name wrong. Instead, she complained about an offensive statue she saw at one location.
Back on Monday, Newton tweeted a picture from a Starbucks that had a statue of a black child, wearing only a loincloth and a safari hat. “Happy New Year circa 19th century,” she wrote.
A few hours after the post, Starbucks tweeted an apology to Newton. “We are very concerned to learn of this incident & we can’t apologise enough. We have removed the figure & are investigating,” the company wrote.
A Starbucks spokesman later told Entertainment Tonight that they had the store remove the statue the moment they “became aware of the offense.”
“We aim to provide an inclusive environment for all customers and communities in which we serve, and we are working with our partners (employees) to avoid similar incidents from happening in the future,” Starbucks said. “We apologize for the offense caused.”
Newton is best known for her roles in Crash and Mission: Impossible II. She stars in the upcoming HBO series Westworld.