Restaurant Owner Speaks Out About Racism She Faces for Being Asian in New Zealand
By Carl Samson
An elderly woman in New Zealand allegedly stormed a vegan restaurant to rant against its dietary principles while insulting its owner with a racially-charged expletive.
The scene, which was caught on a video, took place at Sweet Release Cakes and Treats in Te Aro, Wellington earlier this week.
In the video, the woman can be heard saying that the business should be banned for being “evil,” particularly to children.
“This lady came in from the street and just started yelling at my team calling us f***wits just for existing as a vegan cafe,” Sweet Release owner Kristine Bartley wrote on Facebook.
The woman cited a “recent case” in the United Kingdom in which a vegan couple was prosecuted for starving their child “virtually to death.”
When confronted for calling the staff “f***wits,” the woman replied that it was appropriate for a reason.
“Of course! Because you’re not getting the tryptophan to keep your brain in good order,” the woman said. “What else can you expect?”
Tryptophan, an amino acid — the “building block” of protein — however, can also be found in vegetarian and vegan food, including nuts, soybeans, oats, beans and green leafy vegetables such as spinach.
According to Bartley, the woman also called her an “Asian f***wit” and told her that she should “go home.”
“This lady opened our door, came in yelling about deficiencies [and] called us ‘vaygun’ f***wits. I let her rant a bit more then she called me an ASIAN F***WIT and I asked her to leave. She refused using the words f***wits again and muttering shit about me being a foreigner and how I should ‘go home.’”
Bartley, who grew up in New Zealand, pointed out that she is not working hard only to suffer abuse in her own business.
“I work too damn hard for racist, anti vegans to walk through my damn business to abuse me freely,” she said. “I was born Asian. I can’t help that ok.”
Bartley took down the original video on Thursday with an emotional explanation of why she exposed the woman in the first place.
“She came in, not even a hello, just, screaming things at me and my team. You know, for a vegan cafe, not anything unusual.
“So I kind of just let her get [it] out of her system . . . until she called me an Asian f***wit.
“Growing up as an Asian in New Zealand that was really hard because there’s so much casual racism that I deal with a lot.”
Bartley’s update received an outpour of support from netizens, with many condemning the elderly woman for her abusive behavior.
Featured Image (left) via YouTube/Netizen Watchdog, (right) via Facebook/Sweet Release Cakes and Treats
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