A video of a California woman whose credit card was allegedly declined at a restaurant has gone viral after she was seen yelling at a Black employee and making racist comments.
Ian Soleimani, an employee at the Boathouse Restaurant at Hendry’s Beach, uploaded the nearly five-minute video to his personal Instagram account, which now has over 20,000 views. He captioned the video, “Santa Barbara needs to do better.”
The recording begins with the customer arguing with another employee, seemingly over an unpaid bill. When the patron noticed Soleimani recording the dispute, she turned back to him.
“Hi, one of four Black men in Santa Barbara,” she said. “Oh, now I’m a racist, terrible person. Oh, sorry, just because you’re an obnoxious guy. It’s not your fault that you’re Black, of course.”
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Still upset, the customer turns back to the other employee who suggests to just “call it a day.”
“It was paid though, ma’am and you rejected the payment,” the woman says to the other employee. “What part of you rejecting the payment don’t you recall because I know it wasn’t you, it was your Dr. Phil.”
The woman shifts her attention back to Soleimani, where she mentions his race again.
“Again, what are you doing?” she asked.
Soleimani responds that he’s taking a video of the altercation.
“I might go psychotic pretty soon, I’m probably going to—I’m probably going to get very violent pretty soon, thank God you’re here,” she said while sarcastically calling Soleimani the “Mother Teresa of Santa Barbara” for recording.
“Again, don’t you have some fish to catch, African-American man?” she said. “Don’t you want to go on a boat and do some African-American fishing?”
According to comments on Soleimani’s Instagram post, he was wearing a Santa Barbara Fish Market sweater.
Soleimani said this isn’t the first time he’s been targeted with racial comments at work.
“People have been kicked out of boathouse a few times for [racially] motivated comments towards myself unfortunately,” Soleimani told The Daily Dot. “After experiencing stuff like that on and off for as long as that restaurant has been open, just doesn’t surprise me. Just learned how to deal with it better.”
“Lived here since 2003 and this happens all the time. This person just got caught. People think this doesn’t exist let alone here and it certainly does.”
Newsweek has contacted Soleimani for comment.
