The smiling image of a tomato used to market a produce store in Silicon Valley sits in stark contrast to a racist incident there this past week.
Tracy Lee says she was standing in line at the checkout counter when she asked another customer to please keep her social distance.
At that point, she says the clerk at Oakmont Produce Market in Cupertino expressed surprise, saying ” “…you came from China and you are the one who brought the virus here.”
Tracy asked her to repeat it and the clerk complied. Lee shared her experience on Facebook and the market has been besieged with negative reviews.
ABC7 news anchor Dion Lim contacted the market which confirmed the clerk has been fired.
LATEST STORIES
This is “Why we speak out,” Lim wrote on her Facebook page.
In a message on its Facebook page, the market wrote:
On behalf of all of the messages we have received we would like to issue the following statement. We have reached out to Tracy and hope she will meet with the owners soon.
?
We would first like to start off my saying we sincerely apologize. We will work to make this right as we appreciate all of our customers and are aware that the local community is what keeps us going every day.
One persons action does not define who we are and what we have built over the years with the community. Employees come and go and do not represent the overall purpose of our business. Given the situation, this employee was immediately terminated. Her acts and ignorance are not a reflection of our store.
Again, we sincerely apologize and appreciate this situation was brought to our attention.
Thank you,
Oakmont Produce Market ?
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our new Instagram account. Go to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff, or submitting a story.
RE: Supermarket clerk in Silicon Valley fired for spouting coronavirus racism: It’s a shame that Asians American are experiencing such a degree of racism and violence towards them. As an African American I can relate. My people have been the victims of the most brutal forms of violence and bigotry. It’s sad, but this is a way of life in American; to hate other races because of ignorance. As the world’s mixing pot all races here are subject to and likely to at one time or another to feel the painful effects of resentment and hatred.
RE: Supermariet clerk fired in Silicon Valley after spouting coronavirus racism: America is no more or less racist than other countries that I’ve lived in. It has an extremely diverse population that brings racism to the surface in ways that aren’t likely elsewhere. As an Asian American moving to Oakland California, I experienced extreme racism and hatred from black residents, but I don’t think it was because of ignorance, but because they saw us as invaders. It’s a problem that America may never solve, and we’ll probably see it spread to other countries as their populations become more like ours. I have family who recently emigrated to Canada from Hong Kong, and they’re experiencing similar racism, but are less able to speak out about it.