I worked behind the bar at a greek-owned restaurant, where all of the management is greek, the workers are all either greek or hispanic, and I was one of the only two asian girls in the restaurant. I’ve worked there for a year now and constantly had to deal with micro aggression but never let them get to me because I just deemed them as restaurant culture and my first step into the real world. Until recently, a new greek girl was hired and I could tell she did not like me and knew she did not like me because she told our coworker so (and our coworker would tell me.) I did not care much about it until my coworker started telling me about the racist things she does and says. Ex: she pulled her eyes back and said “look, it’s ______ (me)”, she mocked our other asian coworker’s accent by saying “ching chong ching chong” when she is burmese, and she has said one of our salvadoran servers is “too dark-skinned to be working here,” etc.
I was obviously very upset when I heard this so I asked to talk with the bar manager and the general manager about this, together with my burmese coworker. We expressed that we do not feel comfortable working with the racist coworker anymore and told them about everything she has said and done. They were shocked to hear about it but promised to do something about it. They asked us to please give them some time while they figure things out because they can’t afford either of us quitting right now. I respect the management and trusted that they will handle this situation so I said okay.
Later that evening, the general manager asked to talk to us again to reiterate everything. While we were talking, one of the bosses/owners of the restaurant came to the table and basically wanted to know what we are talking about. The general manager replied we have some issues with one of the workers, and he let me tell him the issue. So I said to him this worker is very racist, and before I could even finish my sentence, the boss started getting heated and said, “her? she’s a good girl, there are no issues with her. the problem is you two, you guys talk too much.” Right as that happened, I turned to my manager and said, “right, and so today will be my last day.” My manager’s face drops as the boss starts to yell about me accusing them of being racist. I start to leave the table and the boss chases after me and continues to scream in my face about how dare I call them racist when it’s their business. I started yelling back and asked him why is he getting so defensive if I wasn’t even talking about him and he just continued to yell at me to leave his business if I want to. After that, I bid my farewells to all of the busboys and the kitchen and left.
I know that me quitting that place is their loss because I’m a damn good worker and I’ve done a lot for that store, but I am so angry and unsatisfied. Any advice on what to do?
TL;DR: went to the management about a racist coworker, the boss came by and started screaming at me instead about accusing them of being racist in their business, and I quit on the spot.