Influencer Sophia Chang was harassed by a racist man who told her to “go back to Wuhan”.
The incident occurred at the Blue Water Grill restaurant in Newport Beach, California.
“My sister and I sat down to eat dinner @bluewatergrill in Newport Beach and this man made direct eye contact with us and said “Go back to Wuhan” as he headed to the bathroom,” Chang wrote on Instagram.
Wuhan is the Chinese city where Coronavirus is believed to have started.
“Once he returned, we asked him why he would say that and he goes “I don’t speak Chinese, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m so disgusted.”
According to Hopclear, Chang expanded on what occurred in her Instagram stories.
Chang and her sister entered the restaurant and crossed paths with the man. The man, identified now as James Hilbrant of Orange County, allowed the women to enter first but turned racist.
“He let us go through first and he goes, ‘go back to Wuhan, go back to Wuhan,’ and directly makes eye contact with my sister and gives us this very evil stare, and proceeds to go to the bathroom,” she said.
Chang complained to the waiter who then called over her manager to their table.
When Hilbrant came out of the bathroom, Chang pointed him out to the manager but later saw him hug a restaurant employee.
“So I think, okay he knows people here,” she said. “He’s a regular here. There’s no chance that they’re going to believe us.”
Hilbrant approached the sisters’s table and when Chang asked him why he said what he said, he replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t speak Chinese. I don’t speak Chinese.”
Chang then started recording – the footage of which can be found on the influencer’s Instagram page.
“The guy is staring at us. He takes his mask off and he’s just deadly staring into me and my sister’s eyes with that look that’s just like ‘I did say it and I’m going to get away with it,’” she said.
“It just felt like they were taking their sweet old time,” she said of the staff.
“That’s the only issue I had with them. I didn’t feel the urgency of them wanting them to leave the restaurant.”
In other news, a woman was caught on film racially abusing an Asian father after his kids used chalk on the sidewalk.
