Once again, racism in the United States has shown its ugly face, after a white customer at a Tampico Mexican Restaurant in Parkersburg, West Virginia insulted the manager after she heard him speak Spanish.
A video showing a white woman swearing at the general manager went viral over the weekend. “English is our first language, so you need to speak English” the woman, identified in the video as Jill, screamed at Sergio Budar, the manager. “Get the fuck out of my country.” As Jill continued to scream at Mr. Budar, the man dining with her tries to stop her from shouting because “these are good people.” “If you don’t stop being racist, we’re going to leave,” her companion said. “That’s racist. And this man takes care of me,” he added, referring to Budar, “and we’re going to get out of here because you don’t talk to him like that.”
One of two videos capturing the incident shows how customers at Tampico Mexican Restaurant were astonished at the woman’s remarks. “It makes me feel angry, sad. It’s unbelievable that were still seeing this kind of behavior to this day,” Expresed Mr. Budar, originally from Mexico to NBC News in an enterview. “I’ve been living here for almost two decades, and counting. I got my U.S. citizenship while here, but that doesn’t mean that people can’t speak other languages that are not English.” The story was first reported by website Latino Rebels on Sunday February 17.
Irma Dleon, the woman who posted the video on Facebook expressed:
Budar told Jill and the man with her that he would pay for their meal if they left the restaurant, which they did.
Similar incidents that have gone viral.
Last year, a white lawyer threatened to call immigration authorities on some restaurant workers in New York City for speaking Spanish. In a store Colorado, a young woman defended two Spanish-speaking friends who were being harassed by an older woman. In Montana, a border patrol agent detained two women who were chatting in Spanish while buying groceries.
According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University in San Bernardino, largest cities in the United States saw a 176 percent spike in anti-Latino hate crimes the first two weeks after the election won by Donald Trump. In 2017-2018, reports of anti–Hispanic/Latino crimes rose by more than 24 percent, according to FBI numbers.
*With information from nbcnews.com, Latino Rebels and Facebook.
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