SFGate Blog
By Evan Sernoffsky on October 23, 2014 7:06 AM
Racist rant 種族主義咆哮
A woman leading a sightseeing tour through S.F.’s Chinatown was caught on video in a racist, expletive-laden rant. (YouTube screenshot) 一位女黑人導遊對SF中國城的種族主義咆哮被貼上網。
A woman leading a tour through San Francisco’s Chinatown was caught on video unleashing an expletive-laden, racist rant during a sightseeing tour.
The video, titled “San Francisco — city sightseeing tour guide and her last day working,” was posted on YouTube Tuesday and hit more than 200,000 views by Thursday morning after media attention swirled around the bizarre episode.
The guide in the video explodes to a group of tourists in a tirade of F-bombs, offensively deriding almost every element of Chinatown’s rich culture, history, and values.
The woman, who has not yet been identified, claims the Chinatown in L.A. (where she is apparently from) is “way cleaner,” has “way better restaurants” and “not as many people,” while intermittently taking pulls from a large bottle filled with an unknown liquid.
“If you are considering moving to San Francisco, although this is the cheapest neighborhood, do not live here,” she says before diving back into more shocking and disrespectful passages in her tirade.
In a statement to KNTV, Christian Watts, the chief executive of City Sightseeing San Francisco, apologized and said he would increase training.
“Comments made by this former employee on her last day of employment are absolutely not a representation of how much we love and support Chinatown, and every other community in San Francisco,” Watts said.
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It’s not clear if the tourists understood everything the woman was saying, but in the video a handful of visitors nervously laugh and clap while the woman takes a pause before launching into another rant.
The video finally ends with the group going through the Stockton Tunnel and the woman yelling “F— Chinatown. Go Giants,” before she takes another quaff from her bottle.
On Thursday, San Francisco Supervisor David Chiu and other community leaders announced they would hold a rally against the racist rant at 4 p.m. in Chinatown’s Portsmouth Square at Kearney and Washington streets.
“Community leaders will call on the company and the tourism industry for greater staff oversight and training on cultural sensitivity,” Chiu’s legislative aide, Amy Chan, said in a news release.
Mayor Ed Lee said the tour bus company owes the city more than an apology.
“I do think that they have to demonstrate that they are going to train their employees better,” he said. “Tourism is a critical thing for this city. If you saw (the video), it was pretty disgusting to hear this ranting from that individual, and I join in the effort to make sure the company does all they can to correct it and to also make assurances that this won’t happen again.”
He added, “You know that Chinatown was named the best neighborhood in the country last year, so how could somebody turn that into the opposite thing?”
Please note, the video is likely offensive to many people and is not suitable for work.
