Professor Tells Asian-American Couple To “Go Back To Their Country”
A college professor who teaches and counsels at Golden West College was caught on film telling an Asian-American couple to “go back to their home country.”
Tony Kao and his wife caught Tarin Olson on camera spewing racism and bigotry in their direction as they were walking with their child down the street. The video was split into two shorter clips, both of which have gained traction on Facebook.
“I want you to tell everybody why you told us to go back to our country,” says Kao in one video, in which Olson responds “You need to go back to your country… Have your wife turn your phone off and I’ll talk to you.” Kao wrote on the social media site that Ms. Olson’s comments were unprovoked. When asked why she “hated” the couple, Olson said that she did not hate them. The video has over half-a-million views.
In an email to the LA Times’ Daily Pilot, Olson said that she was “not in a good place emotionally after receiving so many disgusting emails… for something that wasn’t even racist and was then skewed by a guy named Tony who filmed [her] without [her] permission.”
“If you would like to have a full normal interview about the displacement of European-Americans, then I gladly am available to enlighten the public,” she told KCBS-TV/2.
Olson will be on leave from the institution for two weeks, until the district comes to a final decision on what to do with her.
“We’re very aware the community has deep concerns, and we’re not going to let this die,” said district spokeswoman Letitia Clark. “We’re looking at past interactions with students and staff to see if it relates to the comments made on the video.”
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