In a viral video, TikToker @yezmineex says the “most disrespectful thing” that has happened to her in the service industry was an interaction with a racist customer at Hooters.
“[A customer] started off by asking me my ethnicity,” @yezmineex explains. “This dude grabs the back of my hair and says ‘this isn’t your real hair, is it?’”
The TikToker says that when she told the man that her hair was her real hair, he said, “No it isn’t, I know Black people can’t grow long hair like that.”
“I had no idea what to say, I was in complete and total shock,” said @yezmineex in her TikTok. “So I was like, ‘You should never say that to a Black woman, or any woman, or any person.’”
The TikToker said that since the interaction, she’s been friendly toward the man.
“But that was very disrespectful,” she says in the video. “And that’s something that’s never happened to me in my entire life.”
Commenters on the video were appalled at the man’s actions.
“Isn’t that assault?” wrote @katiemtz17. It’s unclear whether the action could have resulted in an assault charge.
“I would’ve lost my job,” commented @ohsheforeign, referencing what they’d do in @yezmineex’s situation. @yezmineex responded saying that she “snatched his hand away.”
“You have the patience of a saint,” wrote @6devil6kitten6. “I would’ve thrown hands. I’m sorry that happened to you.”
@yezmineex commented on the video saying that commenters seemed to be more upset that she didn’t “speak up in [her] work place rather than the fact that someone was openly racist.”
She also commented that the man only tipped her $5.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @yezmineex and Hooters.
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