A man who racially abused a Chinese family in Canada changed his tone after realizing he was on camera, according to an Asian witness he allegedly targeted next.
The incident, which was caught on video, occurred at the Burger King outlet in Ironwood Plaza, a shopping mall in Richmond, British Columbia at around 3 p.m. on May 1.
What happened: The witness, identified only as Benjamin W., described a commotion as soon as he arrived at the Burger King drive-thru.
While lining up his car, Benjamin saw a man at the drive-thru window standing next to a Chinese family in a minivan.
Benjamin told NextShark he heard the man yell “China virus,” “Because of you the world is like this!” and “Go back to your country!” to the family.
Outraged, Benjamin drew the man’s attention to himself, telling him to “Get the f*** out.”
In a dashcam video Benjamin posted, the alleged aggressor can be heard yelling, “F*** you, motherf***er,” “F***ing Chinese motherf***er” and “I’ll f***ing kill you!” in his direction.
In a phone video, the man is then seen standing outside Benjamin’s window, telling him, “Nice meeting you.”
Incident reported: Benjamin told NextShark he forwarded all the evidence he had gathered to local law enforcement.
“His demeanor quickly changed when I took out my phone to record his face. Little did he know the exchange was captured on my dashcam,” Benjamin wrote in an Instagram post.
“I’m not sure what business he had there at the drive-thru window since he was not in a vehicle. He was also not wearing his mask while being in close proximity to the people in the van,” he told NextShark.
Image: Handout
Benjamin believes the man had committed a threat and a hate crime. “The main outcome I want is for this man to learn from his mistake and change his attitude towards other races. He needs to educate himself and not be so ignorant. We are all in this together no matter the skin color,” he said.
While he felt upset in the moment, Benjamin is unsure about standing up to the aggressor if his wife and 1-year-old child were in his car. “I may have just stayed quiet as I would fear for the safety of my occupants,” he told NextShark. “But I was alone in my car yesterday so I didn’t hold back.”
Benjamin said he first shared the incident on his private Instagram account, but followers urged him to make it public to “bring attention to the racism that people face daily.”
NextShark has reached out to Richmond RCMP for further comment and will update this article accordingly.
Many people might not know this, but NextShark is a small media startup that runs on no outside funding or loans, and with no paywalls or subscription fees, we rely on help from our community and readers like you.
Everything you see today is built by Asians, for Asians to help amplify our voices globally and support each other. However, we still face many difficulties in our industry because of our commitment to accessible and informational Asian news coverage.
We hope you consider making a contribution to NextShark so we can continue to provide you quality journalism that informs, educates, and inspires the Asian community. Even a $1 contribution goes a long way. Thank you for supporting NextShark and our community.