A man reportedly went on a 10-minute-long “racist tirade” after hearing two men speaking Korean while on a train in Auckland, New Zealand.
Leonard Hong and his friend, who was visiting from Korea, were on their way to visit the Sky Tower when a man allegedly targeted Hong on the Western train line to Swanson on Sunday.
“It’s ridiculous that in a wonderful multicultural city like Auckland that some old white guy comes up to me and calls me a ‘dog eater’ and mock me. Utterly disgraceful,” Hong tweeted.
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“I hear this guy murmuring, ‘oh I’ve seen this kind before,’ you know, ‘dog eaters’ and all that. It was just horrible,” Hong told Newshub. “I think he presumed I didn’t speak English, and he started to go on this racist tirade of abuse at me.”
Hong said the man continued his outburst in front of other passengers. Hong told Tracy Dawson, the train manager, who then stopped the train to confront the man. She forced the racist man to apologize, according to Hong.
Hong, who grew up in North Shore, commended Dawson and the other passengers on board who also supported him and his friend.
“The people who were around me were not only supporting me but making sure that this sort of thing is not tolerated – that’s the thing that I’m happy about,” Hong was quoted as saying.
“It is ridiculous that this kind of thing is still happening in the 21st century,” he added. “The day wasn’t ruined completely, but that 10 minutes was horrible.”
Featured Image via Leonardshong (left), AklTransport (right)
