An unnamed woman visiting a Starbucks location in Walnut Creek was escorted out of the cafe by police officers after reportedly becoming irate as she heard other customers speaking in Korean to each other. A pair of viral videos showcasing a portion of the altercation has been circulating Facebook since it happened on Sunday.
An international college student from South Korea, self-identified on her Facebook page as Annie An, was at the suburban coffee house in a tutoring session with Sean Lee, as KRON reports, when Lee says he said something in Korean in the vein of, "We might need to brainstorm this way and write the essay that way."
Lee says that's when the woman, who they didn't know, began speaking to them.
As he recalls, "This lady just suddenly says, 'Don't you dare say that again.'"
An then began filming the subsequent conversation between the pair and the woman. By that time, two baristas at the store had walked over to ask the woman to leave. She refused, and used slurs to refer to Lee and An. The employees then called the police to intervene.
"You can sit and be quiet, fine," the woman said to the pair in the video An posted to Facebook. "But I don't want to hear your language."
An's video quickly went viral, and has been viewed 317,000 times as of this writing. Lee's video went viral as well, and has recorded 650,000 views.
As Lee told KRON later, the incident "was actually my very first time interacting with someone like this, and that's why I was even more surprised ... I mean, I see videos like this online, you know, I see it on the news, but it's not something I would ever imagine happening to me or anyone I know."
In the text accompanying the video she first posted to Facebook, An wrote that the woman again complained about her language when police arrived to escort her out.
"Imagine this happening to your family and friends," Lee wrote in his post about the incident. "I've always cognized this issue, but my first, real-life encounter with racism has brought it to the forefront of my mind. I hope it does the same for you."
Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.