When Grecya Moran, a resident of San Jose, California, stopped at a local Shell gas station with her baby in one arm, it’s fair to say that she didn’t expect anyone would ask for proof of her citizenship. In what was luckily caught on camera, and can only be described as a pure nightmare, Moran was berated by an employee who unloaded a slew of xenophobic and racist remarks on the customer.
As Moran told Los Angeles station ABC7, she was greeted in Spanish by an employee upon entering the gas station. The two conversed briefly in Spanish while another employee stood close by. Then, for no apparent reason, the other employee, a white-presenting woman, cut in and insisted the two speak in English.
Yes, really.
"I even went up to her and I apologized," Moran said. "I said, 'Excuse me, I'm sorry. All she was saying is-- she was greeting me in Spanish. How my day's going.' And she said, 'I don't care, you talk in English because this is America.'"
According to Moran, the situation went from bad to worse. Presumably the irate employee didn’t enjoy being corrected, as she then spiraled even deeper into a fit of racist fury. "She started saying something about, 'Trump needs to hurry up and build the wall.' That's when I was like oh my God, she's being serious," Moran continued. "I just got my phone, started videotaping her."
Clips of the horrible interaction have gone viral on Twitter:
And on Facebook:
The infuriated employee flung out bizarre and racist statements, including, "You can do whatever you want because you're not a United States citizen of the United States."
To which Moran replied, "I was born here." (Note: Even if she wasn’t born in the U.S., this behavior would never be acceptable.) And then the employee yelled, “Then prove it to me, motherfucker!"
Ah, yes. The classic prove-your-citizenship-to-a-complete-stranger move.
The employee was fired the very same day, ABC7 reports. The manager who confirmed the firing noted that the woman had been hired to work at the gas station just two or three months before this went down.
Moran said that she went to the San Jose Police, who said her report is being processed by the department. Moran, understandably, reported it as a possible hate crime. The employee’s name has not been revealed at this time.
"I was born here, raised here, and I never thought in a million years it was going to happen to me," Moran said. "I hear stories, I see videos but I never thought it was going to happen to me."