Last night I was surprised to get a phone call from the former tour guide who went on the now-infamous racist rant about Chinatown. She reached out to reporter Lisa Amin Gulezian of ABC7 News and they called me together. The news story captures just a snippet of the conversation - she also apologized and seemed to be coming to an understanding that her comments were not satirical or comedic but were instead incredibly harmful and offensive. I dont know the womans name or her phone number but she said she was going to call me back today to talk about what she can start to do to make amends to the Chinatown community and all of San Francisco. Im glad shes starting to come forward and realize she needs to take responsibility for her actions. Earlier yesterday I joined Supervisor Malia Cohen, Chinatown leaders, and a diverse community coalition for a rally in Portsmouth Square in response to the video. I am proud that our communities were able to come together to send a clear message that this sort of deeply offensive speech has no place in the City of St. Francis. The rally highlighted the amazing history and culture of Chinatown as well as the incredible diversity that makes our city so special. Before the rally, I also spoke to the head of the tour bus company where this guide was employed. He apologized on behalf of the company and said the incident was shocking, sad and embarrassing. He has committed to sensitivity training for his employees and pledged to help create better ties between his company, the broader tour bus industry and the Chinatown community. As community leaders, we need to hold him to those commitments and to insist that these companies do a better job of hiring locally from the communities where they are bringing tourists. abc7ne.ws/1wlpEkH
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:38:41 +0000