WALNUT CREEK, CA (KRON/CNN) - A woman at a Bay Area Starbucks caused a scene after overhearing a tutoring session in Korean on Tuesday.
Cellphone video of her racist rant went viral online and police had to be called.
The encounter, which was caught on cellphone video Sunday, shows a woman who absolutely did not want to hear other customers speaking in Korean.
"Especially that oriental," the woman said. "I hate it"
The shop's barista told her that they were allowed to speak "their language," but the enraged customer continued.
"You know what, President Obama said that everyone in here, the majority in America, should speak English," said the woman.
Sean Lee was tutoring a community college student, Annie. He was telling her that they would need to brainstorm on an assignment they were working on.
Sean lee: "We didn't provoke her, we were just minding our own business," Lee said.
At first they didn't realize the woman was talking to them, because she was a complete stranger. Annie pulled out her phone and hit record.
For a while, the woman tried to hide her face behind her binder.
"If you don't want to hear it, they're welcome to be here," said the barista. "They're doing nothing wrong - you're the one that's causing an issue."
Other Starbucks employees can be heard defending Annie and Lee.
They politely asked the complaining woman to leave, but she refused, so they called police.
"This was actually my very first time interacting with someone like this, and that's why I was even more surprised," Lee said. "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."
He said the woman didn't say much more until police arrived, but again berated Annie as officers finally got the woman to leave.
The video has surpassed 100,000 views and comments are very supportive of Lee and his student.
He hopes the surprising conversation will spread awareness and help erase some ignorance.
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