Walmart shoppers are not known for being the most tactful people on earth. A Chinese woman was recently shopping at one of the giant stores and was talking to her mom when they were interrupted by a white woman who demanded they learn to speak English. These two shoppers had the perfect response for the woman.
A Facebook video was posted by Jasmine Xiong, who filmed the video at a Walmart in Appleton, Wisconsin. Jasmine, who is of Chinese descent, was doing some holiday shopping with her mom, and the two women were speaking in their native tongue of Hmong.
This stranger – an older white woman – overheard the pair speaking and decided to interject by telling them to “speak English” while in America, and she probably didn’t expect the two Xiong girls to not only respond in perfect english, but to put her in her place.
“If you live in America, speak the language,” the unidentified shopper demanded of the two Chinese women. “Am I not speaking English to you?” Jasmine asks the rude woman, “Why is it that I can’t speak to my mom in Hmong, and English?”
The racist shopper then says that you should have to speak the language of any country you are in. Jasmine, and her mom both respond in perfect English and ask the woman if she speaks fluent Spanish while visiting Mexico.
Attempting to prove her point the woman says she is taking a Spanish class. To which Jasmine and her mother ask her to speak Spanish to them, but all she can do is count to ten. Embarrassed, the woman says, “You don’t have to yell.” Jasmine, who is not raising her voice in the video, says, “Well, don’t make racist comments then.”
“You’re making racist comments,” Jasmine’s mother tells the woman, “Of course I’m going to be offended. So walk away, OK?” As the woman takes her loss and saunters off on her one good leg (she had a walking cast), Jasmine adds for good measure, “We’re speaking English now, OK.”
Hoping to teach a lesson about racism, the 22-year-old Chinese American woman shared the video on Facebook and it has over 500,000 views and 4,400 shares.
Was this woman being racist asking strangers to speak English? Should people be forced to only speak one language in America while in public?