‘You talk too much, this is not China’: Boutique employee whips Asian nurse, 25, with romper and tears clothes from her hands after she asked about return policy
- Bea Cruz said she was at the Maiko clothing store in Forest Hills, Queens, on Friday morning when the incident occurred
- Video she shared from the incident showed an employee trying to knock her phone from her hand after she started recording the man
- Cruz said he became angry when she asked about their pricing and return policy
An Asian woman has shared video of an angry boutique employee who started speaking in a ‘racist’ way when she asked him about their pricing and return policy.
Bea Cruz said she was at the Maiko clothing store in Forest Hills, Queens, on Friday morning when the incident occurred.
In the video, obtained by CBS2, the man is seen using what appears to be a clothing item and attempting to knock Cruz’s phone from her hand after she started recording the incident.
Bea Cruz (pictured) has shared video of an angry boutique employee who started speaking to her in a ‘racist’ way when she asked him about their pricing and return policy
In the video, the man is seen using what appears to be a clothing item (right) and attempting to knock Cruz’s phone from her hand after she started recording the incident
While the audio isn’t clear, Cruz said she was asking questions about the returns policy when things got heated.
‘He turn around and blew up at me. “You talk too much. This is not China; this is America,”‘ Cruz told CBS of the incident. ‘I got triggered because that’s racist.’
The 25-year-old nurse said she then tried to talk the man down but instead things got worse.
‘He’s like, “Gimme, gimme, you can’t buy this.” Still, at this moment, I was saying, I will buy this. Just don’t say this to me,’ Cruz said, adding that he tried to grab the items she was holding from her hands.
Cruz said at one point the man held up a metal hanger as if to strike her with it but instead he ‘whipped me with the romper he had in his hand’.
Toward the end of the video, the man is seen shooing her out of the store and closing the door behind her.
While some of the man’s actions were caught on video, he claimed that he didn’t say anything racist and that it was Cruz who was the disruptive one.
Cruz told CBS that she had previously shopped at the store and never had any issues with the employee.
Cruz said she was at the Maiko clothing store (pictured) in Forest Hills, Queens, on Friday morning when the incident occurred
She also said that since the incident, she’s been getting support from elected officials and plans to make a complaint about it to police.
The incident occurred at a time when the US has seen a spike in hate crimes against the Asian American community.
In March, eight people, including six Asian women, were shot dead in Atlanta.
Following the shooting, violence against Asian Americans was reported in New York and California.
Shockingly, New York saw the greatest increase of 223 per cent with the number of incidents reported to police rising from 13 to 42.
In California, San Francisco saw a 140 per cent increase from 5 to 12.
The uptick is such violence prompted Asian American business leaders to launch the Asian American Foundation.
The foundation launched on Monday and said it has raised $125million from its board members to support Asian American and Pacific Islander organizations over the next five years.
The Asian American Foundation says its giving will focus on supporting organizations and leaders who are measuring and challenging violence against Asian American and Pacific Islanders and developing a common data standard that tracks violence and hate incidents.
The foundation will also help create K-12 and college curriculums that ‘reflect the history of Asian American and Pacific Islanders as part of the American story’.
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