Sarina Gupta, Indian-American woman on viral video of racist attack at Connecticut store: ‘Can’t believe she’s a nurse’
The Indian-American woman, who broke her silence and identified herself as Sarina Gupta, was caught on video at a supermarket in Stamford, Connecticut, being told by a white woman to go back to her country to eat bacon. The incident took place on June 2 and was captured on video by Gupta after a woman became angry when she was forced to wait at the Shoprite counter. Social media users later identified the woman as Victoria Louise Mason, a nurse at the medical facility Nathaniel Witherell.Gupta said it was her birthday and she was returning some items from the store. The process took longer than usual and that’s when she told Mason to go to any other counter as she needed to go to customer service while she was returning some items. When Gupta took out her phone and started recording, Mason became angry and asked her to leave the country.“It’s okay, put me on Instagram. Put me wherever you want. Go eat your bacon,” Mason said, extending his middle finger. Mason told Gupta: “Am I taking up your time, your return is taking a long time, you fat ass? Go back to your fucking country, (inaudible) don’t come to America. Go eat your bacon. God knows she’s always been like this.”After the video went viral and the racist woman’s identity was revealed, her employer announced an investigation into Mason. “Nathaniel Witherell is aware of a video circulating on social media involving an individual identified as one of our employees. We are deeply disturbed by the comments made in the video. These comments do not reflect Nathaniel Witherell’s values, policies or culture. We have a zero-tolerance policy against hate speech, discrimination and harassment of any kind. Nathaniel Witherell Committed to maintaining a diverse, inclusive and respectful environment for our employees, partners and the communities we serve,” said.Gupta said she was shocked when she learned her harasser was a nurse because the thought of caring for patients of color was terrifying. She said she was shocked when Mason violently attacked her. Supermarket staff were also not trained to deal with the situation, she said. “Some of the employees are people of color as well. They’re just as shocked and scared as I am,” Gupta said.
