Actress Thandie Newton Tweets Starbucks About Their ’19th Century’ Statue

Earlier this week, actress Thandie Newton was pretty peeved with Starbucks after spotting the counter display in one of their branches.

The star, who you’ll recognise from E.R and The Pursuit of Happiness, tweeted the coffee giant with the words: “Seriously @Starbucks? At the counter – Loin cloth and Safari hat on a black child. Happy New Year circa 19th century”.

Seriously @Starbucks? At the counter – Loin cloth and Safari hat on a black child. Happy New Year circa 19th century pic.twitter.com/kD3qgKmti1

— Thandie Newton (@thandienewton) January 4, 2016

Starbucks responded with an apology and said the statue had since been removed and an “investigation” was underway.

@thandienewton we are very concerned to learn of this incident & we can’t apologise enough. We have removed the figure & are investigating.

— Starbucks Help (@starbuckshelp) January 5, 2016

Thandie wasn’t the only one to get annoyed by the display and there were a number of replies to her tweet.

@starbuckshelp How does that happen in the first place? Who authorized? You have a store of employees, and no one thought, "2016. Bad idea."

— Eric Jerome Dickey (@EricJDickey) January 8, 2016

@thandienewton @Starbucks NO JUST NO

— shannonwoodward (@shannonwoodward) January 4, 2016

@starbuckshelp @thandienewton Hope so. I see this figure in a store, I'm not coming back.

— Dionne Obeso (@DionneObeso) January 6, 2016