The owner of a gas station in Oakland says he was the target of a racist confrontation last week.
ABC7 reported that it happened at a station along Broadway last Thursday morning. A customer came in wanting to pay for his gas with a pile of quarters and an employee told the man she could not accept it as payment.
The Asian American gas station owner, who wanted to be identified only as Cwell, says his employee tried to tell the man he had to go to a bank because the quarters would not fit in the till. That’s when Cwell came over to try and help.
"He just started mouthing off...'You should go back to China,' like that," Cwell told ABC7. He says after 20 years running a gas station, he was not fazed. "We were just busting out laughing, it’s just so unbelievable. I’ve been through so much it’s like, verbal stuff doesn’t really bother me."
But he said things shifted after the man threatened to return to the store, so Cwell followed him out to his car to take a photo of his license plate.
Cwell started recording the confrontation, and video shows the man yelling at him, "Go f--- your mama! Go f--- you mama! You're not from here! You're Asian! Small d---!"
Cwell told the station that after the man got in his car, he reversed towards Cwell.
"I took it as an assault."
Surveillance footage also shows the man spray something into Cwell’s face. He says he had to go to the ER and is planning on pressing charges.
There has been a surge in attacks on Asian Americans in the Bay Area and across the country in recent months.
"I totally appreciate that you let me share my story because this has got to stop," he told ABC7. "I hope this brings awareness that everybody goes through the same stuff. We just have to understand that and understand that we all have to work together."
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