Auckland Café Kicks Out Racist Customer Attacking Chinese Family

March 18, 2021

A man was recently filmed going on a racist tirade against an Asian-New Zealander family inside a coffee shop in Auckland.

Siblings Fiona Yang, 18, and Felix, 21, both born and raised in Auckland, were ordering food with their mother at the Humble Villager café in Epsom when they were suddenly targeted by another customer, reports NewsHub.

The man reportedly arrived in the line behind the family at around 11 a.m. and asked if he could order ahead of them because he was in a hurry.

When Felix declined the request, the man became agitated and started complaining that the “bloody Chinese” always order slowly.

According to Felix, the man was condescending so he responded by pointing out that he’s being racist, but the man just went on to “ramble about other things.”

Forced to wait his turn, the man went on to order normally but then he approached the family again and told them to “go back to China.”

“He came over to the table [to tell us to go back to China] and then he took our order number, because he wanted to confuse the kitchen staff – which he did,” Felix narrated.

Humble Villager café manager Ellen Zhang, who took the family’s order at the time, shared that the man later berated the family, claiming that white people were in New Zealand first and “opened the door” to Asian people.

The family could no longer take the abuse, with their mother reacting to the man’s claim saying, “the Māori were here first.” The man then came up to the family and spewed more racist claims.

“You don’t know New Zealand’s history very well; the Māoris ate the Morioris, who were here first,” the man can be heard as saying.

While this claim has long been debunked as a myth, it has persisted for generations in New Zealand.

Having had enough of the man’s actions, Zhang and another staffer told the man to leave. He eventually left after getting repeatedly asked to go.

Back in July, the Human Rights Commission found a 30% increase in racially motivated attacks in New Zealand amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings from a recent report revealed that 54% of Chinese respondents in the country said they had experienced discrimination and now are fearing for their safety.

Feature Image via NewsHub

Share this Article