Asian American influencers in the U.S. regularly encounter systemic racism, often in the form of casual mockery, stereotypes, and online harassment that many people still brush off. An incident like this happened to a Dallas-based influencer who was recording himself eating his dinner at a bustling IHOP in Texas. While the content creator was enjoying his dinner, a woman was caught on camera making a racist gesture behind his back, which he later discovered upon re-watching the footage. The clip is making the rounds online right now.
The influencer in question is ningfooty on TikTok (real name Ngai Ning), who is a Dallas-based content creator who typically covers soccer. In the video, however, he can be seen recording himself enjoying a meal sat a table in an IHOP in Texas. In the background, a blonde woman in a black-and-white blouse moves back and forth, clearly watching the influencer out of the corner of her eye as he eats.
Moments later, the woman can be seen peeking around a wall to watch the influencer from behind. Shockingly, she then appears to make a racist gesture with her eyes that is directed at the content creator. She then walks back and awkwardly confronts the influencer as he eats his meal. “Can I ask you a question? Why are you recording?” the overly curious lady asks. With his mouth full of food and a smile on his face, the influencer replies, “Oh, just for fun.” In retort, the woman says, “Okay, just make sure, because we’re having some problems with that, you know, people going around doing that.“
She then says, “You’re not supposed to be filming,” which comes across as an unusual request. Calmly, Ning responds, “Why not?” She explains in a slightly confused manner with, “Well, because there’s a problem that’s going on on TikTok right now–” though the man interjects and clarifies, “I’m just filming myself, though.” which seemingly placates the woman as she smiles back. After a brief back-and-forth, the woman walks away.
The video then cuts to a brief interaction with an IHOP employee, who apologises for the woman’s rude actions. As Ning pays for his meal, he says, “I get that because people, you know, there’s some people that just go around and harass people with a camera and, you know, it’s bad. Like Walmart. They were just like, it’s not funny at all.”
In a follow-up video, Ning shared his two cents on the interaction, stating, “I didn’t expect this video to blow up like this. At first, I’ll be honest, it didn’t really bother me. But after watching the video back, it really hit me. This is something I’ve always seen online, you know, people making fun of others. Doing some type of racism, but I’ve never personally experienced anything like this. And seeing it happen to me made me realise how not okay it actually is. When she came up to me it felt condescending and passive-aggressive.”
As expected, the footage has sparked reactions online, with many commenters criticizing the woman’s rude and offensive behavior. Over on TikTok, one user wrote, “Was the eye thing necessary…” while another added, “The eyes squinting was so wrong!” A third penned, “what the hell is wrong with people.” Over on Reddit, one commenter expressed, ““We’re having problems…” then completely fails to explain the problem. And later, him finding out that she’s part of “the problem” by being a racist POS doing [racist gesture] behind him. What a piece of trash.” Another wrote, “Well that racist woman certainly gave him valuable content“.
