(dramatic music)
- My name is Jordan Chan.
And my family and I were recently victims
of racial aggression on the 4th of July.
My dad is full Chinese and my mom is full Filipino.
It's very important that people expose racists
and white supremacists.
And I also just wanted people to know that this is something
that is really, really close to home.
It could literally be anyone and anywhere.
(dramatic music)
I'm an American citizen.
I was born in Wisconsin,
but my parents were doing long distance when I was a kid.
So my dad has always lived in the Philippines.
It was too hard for them.
We ended up moving to the Philippines
when I was around five years old I would say.
I did all of my elementary school,
my preschool, half of high school.
And then I moved to California around seven years ago
for my junior year of high school.
I've always felt like I'm too Asian for my American friends.
And I'm too American for my Asian friends.
I've never personally experienced anything
like to the point where I would consider it bullying,
but I know my family has.
Mostly like my dad and my brother
who have told me like their experiences at school and work
where they've experienced racism in America.
(dramatic music)
My tita's birthday is on the 4th of July.
So we planned this year to drive to Monterey to celebrate.
And so we were at the restaurant.
Lucia's at Bernardus Lodge and Spa,
which is a really nice, fine dining restaurant.
We were celebrating her birthday dinner
and we were singing happy birthday to her.
And then Michael Lofthouse who you can see in the video,
he's sitting on the table right behind my tito and tita.
While we were singing happy birthday,
he starts saying like, (beep) you Asians.
Go back to whatever (beep) Asian country you came from.
My family and I then exchanged confused looks.
It was so unwarranted and like completely unprovoked.
So we were kind of just like, is he talking to us?
It was very obvious that alcohol played a factor
into his bluntness.
And so my uncle and I turned around to him
and we're like, what's your problem?
And then he just goes on this rant.
Like you guys don't belong here, (beep) Asians.
And that's when I start recording him.
Say it one more time.
- That's what I'm saying.
Trump's gonna (beep) you.
You (beep).
You (beep) need to leave.
(beep) Asian piece of (beep).
- Oh my God.
When all of that was going down,
everybody was staring obviously,
but this was like a very loud altercation
in a very fancy place.
And so everyone was kind of just staring in shock.
You know, when that happens,
nobody really knows how to react
because it's not normal, you know?
But then, once Gennica, who's the server
who got involved and was like defending my family.
Other people started joining in too.
- [Gennica] You are not allowed here.
- I already, I already put my (beep) order in.
- Don't talk to our guests like that.
Get out now.
- Who are these (beep)?
- They are valued guests.
- Are they?
They're valued guests in the middle of a pandemic.
- (beep) you, you're a racist.
After, when Michael was being escorted off the premises,
he actually tried approaching our table,
but then Gennica, the server, and two other customers
got involved and they were like serving as a barrier
between us and him.
(dramatic music)
It's something like a lot of people are desensitized to,
but when it's happening to you in the moment
and like you are personally being targeted,
I don't know how to explain it.
It's completely different.
As soon as he, he was like completely gone,
I just started sobbing uncontrollably at the dinner table.
My uncle, while I was crying, he was like saying,
you have to forgive and forget
because that's the Christian thing to do.
And that made me really angry because you know,
that whole mantra of forgiving and forgetting in instances
of any social injustice just perpetuates it,
it teaches them that they can get away with it.
We have to show people that racism on any level
is an intolerable offense.
They were like, this is normal.
Like we've experienced racism, maybe not on that scale,
but it's definitely happened before
and it probably will happen again.
But that made me cry even harder
because I was like, it shouldn't be that way.
And this isn't something
that should be glossed over or tolerated.
This is completely unacceptable
that people have to even live in fear of that.
When I first posted it,
which was on the fifth, the day after it happened,
it was mostly a lot of love and support I received,
you know, because at first
it was just like people who followed me,
like my friends and family and coworkers, et cetera.
But then when it blew up, like it went viral,
that's when I started receiving a lot of hate.
I actually had to turn disable my notifications
for Instagram, and I just went private recently.
People will say a lot of racist remarks
or they'll kind of try to do whatever they can
to manipulate my words or like
kind of flip the situation on its head
and make it seem like I was aggravating him
or my family in some way deserved his racist remarks.
So when I first heard the apology,
I did not believe it was genuine
because when the video went viral and it reached Michael,
he actually commented on my original post
of the video of him.
And he said, you can eat (beep).
He was sober because that happened
after the video was posted.
(dramatic music)
So a few of my friends have recently notified me
that Gennica, the server,
who is seen in the video defending my family and I
has actually received nearly a $100,000
because a bunch of people like around the world
just started GoFundMe pages for her to tip her.
What Gennica did was really, really wonderful.
And she deserves praise for that.
She was being a really good ally,
but the fact that people are calling her a hero
and that's a word I've been seeing a lot
everywhere in the media.
I think that's really, really problematic and toxic
because why should it be seen as something that's heroic
to stand up for what's right?
Like literally everybody should do that
if they're placed in that instance.
I just think it speaks to a bigger problem.
And that's something that's really hard to talk about
'cause obviously this dialogue is super, super important
because it feeds into the white savior complex.
It's such a difficult discussion to have with people online
because people are quick again, to be defensive and be like,
Oh, why are you attacking white people
when they're trying to be your allies?
But there's a huge difference
between being an ally and a savior.
So I would say one important thing
is if you see it happening
and it doesn't have to be happening to you,
you have to call it out.
You have to make sure that those people know
that that's not okay.
And another thing is that people have to be open
to being wrong.
It's really important to just reflect and sit down,
take a beat for a minute and be like, okay,
why does this person think that what I'm saying
or doing is racist and how can I be better?
We all have to be open to making mistakes
and being corrected.
Nobody's born woke.
Like we all have to learn and unlearn.