By Louis Chan
AsAmNews National Correspondent
(Editor Note: Today we begin our countdown of the top 5 most viewed stories of 2016 on AsAmNews with a look at number 5)
I doubt seriously that what happened to Peiyin Shih at a Dunkin Donut Shop in Queens was the first time she encountered racism, but on this day in 2016 Peiyin decided she wasn’t going to take it anymore.
On that day she was with her son. What kind of example would she be setting for him if she just walked away from the unpleasant situation? Peiyin decided she was going to confront her abuser and fight back.
It all started when Peiyin entered the donut shop and tried to order a glazed chocolate donut. Perhaps thrown off by Peiyin’s accent, the clerk asked her to repeat her order. Peiyin decided it would be easier to just point to the donut, but the clerk refused to fulfill her request, demanding that she repeat it orally.
“You have to say the whole name of the donut,” Peiyin recalls the clerk saying.
“I say why should I say the whole name. You already know what I want. You just want to make fun of me.”
She takes out her cell phone to video the encounter. That only irritates a customer waiting behind her who proceeds to accuse Peiyin of being an undocumented immigrant.
Peiyin would take her grievance to Dunkin Donut management. The store eventually apologized and gave her a $100 gift card as a goodwill gesture. That clerk was likely fired, although the donut shop said it could not confirm that because this was a personnel matter.
In an exclusive interview with AsAmNews New York Correspondent Shirley Ng, Peiyin said “It is not my purpose to get a gift card. I wanted justice. I want people to speak up for their rights. It’s because I was with my nanny and son that I wanted to set a good example. I wanted to show them that if this happens to you, you got to do this. You don’t walk away and let this happen again in the future. I don’t care about the gift card, it’s about justice. Asian people always ‘take it’. We don’t speak English, we’re immigrants. Even if we’re born here, we are taught to not argue and let it go, but if you don’t stand up for your rights, you’re gonna lose it for other people,” she expressed.
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