How racism and a viral mob destroyed a California restaurant

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Courtesy of David Rasavong

A California restaurant has been forced to close permanently after a video went viral falsely claiming its Southeast Asian owner abused dogs and used dog meat in food.

At first, the owner of Tasty Thai in Fresno temporarily closed the restaurant on May 16 due to an outpouring of negative reviews, but he claimed the hate messages had gotten so intense there was no way his business recovers.

It quickly got to the point where there was almost no feedback, David Rasavong told The Daily Beast.

In the video that has gone viral on social media, a woman films a panting dog tied outside a house, with a short leash and no access to water in the heat.

Look at that poor dog, guys, she said after walking to the scene. Damn ridiculous.

An older Asian man answers the door after the woman knocks to yell at him why the dog is in heat without water. However, there seems to be a communication barrier between the two. Eventually, the man fills the dog’s bowl with water and the woman filming screams for the cops to be called.

ABC 30 Fresno interviewed the woman, Maria Alvarez Garcia, who insinuated that the dogs’ conditions were caused by the owners of a nearby restaurant and that the restaurant may have sold dog meat.

At first, yes. Many people believed that [the restaurant sold dog meat]Garcia told ABC 30. A lot of people thought they were related and connected together.

She did not immediately respond to The Daily Beasts’ request for comment on Thursday.

The post gained such popularity that the Fresno Police Department intervened on May 16, writing in a Facebook post that they had investigated the situation and determined that no animal abuse had occurred.

Recently, a short video depicting a female pit bull was uploaded to several social media accounts, the post read. The video alleged that the pit bull was being abused. Fresno cops were quick [sic] alerted to the situation and conducted a thorough investigation into the incident. The short video posted on social media was a snapshot and did not show a complete and in-depth picture of the incident. We are happy to report that the investigation revealed that the dog is not abused. We would like to thank those members of the community who were concerned for the dog’s safety.”

The story continues

Nevertheless, negative comments and reviews began to flood Tasty Thai. Rasavong, who is of Lao descent, said he first thought they might be pranks or people were leaving fake reviews, so he reported them to Google for them. be deleted. However, within a day he realized that it was a bigger problem.

What does it mean to be Asian American in 2022?

That’s when I started to realize it wasn’t just Google, Rasavong said. It was also Yelp, then Facebook, Instagram and even direct message. And I remember thinking they were all saying the same thing. So, that’s when I started looking into the matter.

At first, Rasavong tried to handle the situation by sending a personal message to each person who left a negative review to say that his restaurant had no affiliation with the neighboring house, that he did not know his neighbors, that they certainly didn’t serve dog meat. But Rasavong continued to be bombarded with racist comments and stereotypes.

People [were] calling us disgusting and evil people,” Rasavong told The Daily Beast. Your name shouldn’t be Tasty Thai. It should be a tasty dog. These are the ones that really stuck in my mind.

Rasavong also said photos of the tied dog were attached to restaurant reviews as well as comments from people telling him to leave the United States.

I received phone calls, multiple phone calls, Rasavong said. The one who really, really got me, said the lady, you torture dogs. Go back to the country you came from, you dog-eating mother.

We just made the decision on the spot, he said. We need to shut down until we get our truth so it doesn’t get worse.

Rasavong also filed a police report after discovering threatening voicemails left at the restaurant during the closure.

Garcia, whose Facebook is full of animal welfare videos, later uploaded a video to her page apologizing for wrongly blaming Tasty Thai.

The situation got out of hand, she says in the video. I would like to apologize ; that’s not the person I am. It is a difficult situation to manage.

I’m sorry that David and his family are going through this. There’s no justification for the hate it spewed. It was not my intention for it to happen like this.

But the damage was done and Tasty Thai never reopened after May 15. Rasavong told The Daily Beast that he doesn’t want his parents, who are older and like to spend their time in restaurants, to deal with any negativity that may arise from the video. .

[My parents] always wanted to pass on our tradition, the richness of our [culture], he said. That’s probably the most rewarding thing for them is to say, Hey, we can actually share with the community and the community appreciates the food, the service that we provide.

Rasavong said her parents are immigrants from Laos and took refuge in several refugee camps before coming to the United States. He is the first member of his immediate family between his parents and siblings to be born in the country. He said the ordeal reminded him that he grew up as an Asian American in San Francisco and was asked by children from other cultural backgrounds if his family ate dogs.

It was extremely hurtful when I was a kid, and you’re embarrassed and you’re scared and all those emotions. But when you get older, you think kids are going to be kids, he said. So now that it happened to us based on this disgusting Asian stereotype, it was almost hard for me to understand.

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