"Get out of your country, Nips" "Translate my butt"
Shin says "Hospital's response was amazing... White couple escorted, not us"
A white woman (right) verbally abused Jay Shin, a Korean-Australian (left), with racist slurs at a hospital. Photo by TikTok capture.
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-ju] A third-generation Korean couple visiting a hospital in Australia experienced racial discrimination from a white woman.
According to foreign media including Australia's News Corporation on the 25th, on the 23rd, a middle-aged white patient confronted the couple who visited a radiology clinic in Canning Vale, Perth, Western Australia.
The middle-aged white woman suddenly told Jay Shin, a Korean-Australian, and his pregnant wife, "Go back to your country."
Shin said, "Around 2 p.m., my wife and I were sitting in the hospital waiting room looking at our phones when the white woman next to us made a racist remark, saying 'Translate my butt.' Then she started hurling racial slurs and said, 'Go back to your country, Nips,'" he explained.
'Nip' is a derogatory term derived from Nippon (Japan) used to disparage Japanese people.
When his wife, who is 19 weeks pregnant with their second child, was also insulted, an angry Shin said, "Are you talking to us? What on earth is going on?"
Shin also shouted, "Did you just tell me to go back to your country? I was born in this country."
The white woman then snapped back, "Don't yell at me."
The white man, who appeared to be her husband, sat calmly.
Shin's wife filmed the scene with a camera.
Shin explained that once filming started, the white woman's verbal abuse somewhat subsided.
As the confrontation continued, hospital staff eventually asked both the white woman and Shin to move to different seats.
Even while moving, the white woman muttered, "Go back to China."
Shin said, "It seems she vented her dissatisfaction with the medical procedure on us. I think the white woman was angry about having to enter the examination room alone without her husband and took it out on us," emphasizing, "This kind of thing doesn't happen often, but racial discrimination definitely still exists."
He added, "I was born and raised in Australia, but I don't know if I could handle a similar situation as well as I did if my aunts, who came to Australia when they were 17, faced it. I hope racial discrimination never happens again. If I meet that white woman again, I want to provide diversity education," he also said.
Shin also expressed dissatisfaction, saying, "The staff's response at the time was surprising. They escorted the white couple, not us."
News Corporation reported that they contacted the hospital to hear their position, but the hospital avoided commenting.
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