'This is America': Man tells woman to speak English at Cracker Barrel, she refuses to back down

Hope Schreiber
·Writer
A white man told a woman, who was speaking Spanish with her mother at a Cracker Barrel, to speak English as “This is America.” She captured the incident on video. (Photo: Facebook)
A white man told a woman, who was speaking Spanish with her mother at a Cracker Barrel, to speak English as “This is America.” She captured the incident on video. (Photo: Facebook)

A video, which depicts a woman confronting a man who told her to speak English outside of a Cracker Barrel in El Paso, Texas, is making the rounds on social media thanks to the woman’s impassioned response.

Jasmin Nolan and her mother were having a conversation in Spanish outside the restaurant when a man told her, “This is America. Speak English.”

Nolan began filming the incident after the comment and the man can be heard asking, “Why can’t you speak English?”

“Oh I can — I can speak English and Spanish,” she says in the video. “I’m bilingual and in this country, I can speak whatever language I want.”

The woman also points out that the man is holding an open can of beer outside. The man defends his open container by explaining he is a veteran suffering from PTSD, while Nolan explains her husband is currently serving.

The video of the confrontation lasts nearly two and a half minutes.

Nolan told KVIA that her husband, who is currently deployed in Korea and doesn’t speak Spanish, is proud of her. “He was very proud of me for standing up to [the man in the video]. He thought that this man was completely wrong,” she said.

Nolan and her mother left the restaurant after the incident.

Cracker Barrel released the following statement:

“We at Cracker Barrel are governed by our mission of Pleasing People. In the spirit of those two simple words, we operate within the ideals of fairness, mutual respect and equal treatment of all people. These ideals are at the core of our corporate culture and evident in our stores. We respect all individuals regardless of who they are or what they believe and we require the same mutual respect amongst our employees, guests and vendors.”

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