In recent months, there has been a clear rise in the number of racist incidents happening in America. The racism isn’t just directed at Black people, but at Latinx people too. One example was shared by a Latina woman who shared how she came across a racist female shopper in Washington. According to her, she was at the grocery store talking in Spanish to her daughter when the woman started calling her names. The shopper told her to speak English because this was America. While the interaction wasn’t filmed in the video shared by the woman, it was clear that she was telling the truth. She was filming the shopper who was in front of her and she kept recounting the situation loudly. During this, the shopper didn’t look at her or try to deny what was being said.
Since the video didn’t catch the racist incident, the Washington woman detailed what happened in her caption. “I was just speaking Spanish to my daughter at the grocery store when this excuse of a person told me ‘This is America speak English’. Then proceeded to Flip me off when I called her out. I refused to stay quiet. I spoke even louder in Spanish. No one should ever feel ashamed of their language or culture,” she wrote.
After what she went through, the Washington woman decided to try and get justice. In an update, she said that she told the store manager what happened. He checked the surveillance footage and then informed her that if the same shopper went there again, she would be denied entry. Someone also shared with her the shopper’s workplace and she contacted HR to inform them about their employee’s behavior. The search isn’t over yet because the woman said in another video that HR told her that the racist woman wasn’t their employee anymore; it had been months since she had been working there. Despite this, the woman is still trying to find a way to hold the shopper accountable.
People Reacting to the Racist Washington Shopper
Of course, people were upset about what the Washington woman went through. Many believed that the shopper must be a Trump supporter which made a lot of comments mention him. “Trump gave these people too much confidence,” one person wrote. Another person said, “Trumpsters don’t realize that speaking multiple languages is beneficial and an accomplishment.” Plus, why would she be upset that two people are sharing a private conversation in another language? Since this situation has become common recently, someone also shared their own experience. “This lady told me to stop speaking in Spanish once, so I started speaking to her in French, then English, then back to Spanish. I told her she was the stupid one only knowing 1 language,” they said.
Unfortunately, some people sided with the Washington shopper and believed that she had a point. “I mean it is America,” one person wrote. This made others respond to them as another person asked, “people are allowed to speak any language they want plus shes fluent in english so whats the issue?” Someone else then wrote, “America aka the boiling pot, filled with multiple ethnicities, races and culture. English wasn’t even the first language to be spoken in ‘America.’” It is kind of weird that anyone would be upset that someone is speaking a different language from theirs.
