A woman in Vancouver who was filmed being racist towards two Asian bus passengers has said the video did not tell the whole story.
As reported by Global News, a who was filmed in a racially charge exchange with two Asian women on a Vancouver TransLink bus has claimed she was just defending another passenger.
In the clip, Stephanie Nickel, 24, is heard telling two Asian passengers, “you’re being racist, now drop it.”
“No,” said the Asian passenger. “I have the right to.”
“I don’t give a s**t if you have a right,” said Nickel. “Yeah, go back to your country.”
“You want to threaten me?” the passenger replied.
“How am I threatening you?” the mother of four responded. “You guys need to stop talking your language.”
A male passenger is heard intervening telling Nickel, “they can speak any language they want. It is Canada.”
Nickel has since told Global News that the video did not show what happened before she spoke. According to Nickel, the two Asian women had been arguing and bullying another passenger in English before switching to their native language.
The two Asian women allegedly told another passenger to leave the bus because her perfume was too strong.
“It looked like she was being traumatised and didn’t know what to do,” Nickel said.
Although Nickel could not understand what the women were saying in their language, she assumed they were talking about the other passenger because of the way they stared at her.
“Me being racist, yeah, I agree, I apologize for saying some words and I can’t go back on it,” she said.
Randy Keeping, who recorded and uploaded the footage said he did not know what started the altercation but what he saw was racism.
Nickel has said she has been concerned about her safety since the video was uploaded.
“I feel bullied really, I mean, I’m scared to walk out my front door now,” Nickel said.
