"It was beyond disheartening to see so many people of colour in that room witnessing racism and not speaking up"

An Asian woman has accused Asda of failing to protect her against a racist in their store

A British Chinese woman has tweeted about how she was racially assaulted in an Asda store and how their security failed to intervene.

Eve Cong described how a man followed her into Asda on Peckham High Street in London. Cong said the man was “being racist” and threatened her “with physical violence.”

“He was going to punch me,” she tweeted. “He followed me through the front of the store, into the first aisle where people just stared and did nothing. I thought he would stop when I didn’t entertain him but he continued to threaten me and use various asian slurs. He called me a filthy mongoloid, I’ll let you come up with all the other asian slurs. It was clear I wasn’t with him and on my own.”

The staff and customers idly watched the incident and no one tried to help her. Some young girls were even laughing and videoing. Whilst protecting her face, she started pleading for help. “Humanity failed,” Cong tweeted.

Eventually Cong was introduced to the Deputy Manager who she thought was the main manager. However, his response was simply, “can I tell you something darling, it is a cold world.”

The proper store manager who surfaced later saw the whole thing but stood by and watched. When Cong asked him for his details and his license, he refused and covered up his security badge.

“When I told him that I need to make a complaint about you and legally I am allowed to take your details,” she tweeted. “He continued to cover his badge and walk away, negating all responsibility because he said he’s ONLY supposed to be at the door but was away from it.”

“The deputy manager was smirking and laughing at the situation, saying that he couldn’t ring the police on behalf – then store manager had said he should have done that right away,” she added.

The staff then implied that the incident was triggered from what she was wearing. “Another case of where Misogynistic men that try to give excuses to their actions,” Cong tweeted. “Be aware that you can see what I was wearing, I even brought an umbrella and purposely wore a long sleeve shirt just in case cos I didn’t trust the British Summer.”

In one of Cong’s final tweets in he thread, she expressed how disappointed she was that no one intervened.

“It was beyond disheartening to see so many people of colour in that room witnessing racism and not speaking up,” she wrote. “I speak up for all people of colour all the time and this time where it happened and anyone, someone could have intervened no one did.”

“If you are female and have had men send you dm’s then proceeding to threaten you whether with words of physical violence because you don’t want this attention, please post the screenshot. I urge you!”

Asda has since reached out to Cong in a statement saying, “we know some of our colleagues intervened in the incident to assist Ms Cong and did the right thing by calling the police, but we will always investigate these instances further.”

Cong responded by saying, “I hope you all know that the Asda statement here is inaccurate. They didn’t want to call the police and told me I had to do it. I had to beg and cry for the store manager to call them. Even then the deputy was in the back office he didn’t know a damn thing to tell the police. I spoke to them ALONE.”

The Metropolitan Police have also reached out to Cong and will review CCTV footage.

If you have any further information regarding this incident please contact the Met Police on 020 7230 1212.

A man followed me into @asda , being racist + threatening me with physical violence + that he was going to punch me. Yesterday 13th July '19 @ Peckham, h'st. He followed me through the front of the store, into the first aisle where people just stared and did nothing. Thread — eve (@evecong) July 14, 2019

I was introduced to the Deputy Manager at the time who I thought was the main manager. He was insensitive and said he couldn’t ring the police on my behalf and was very flippant with his response. He proceeded to say “ Can I tell you something darling, it is a cold world.” @asda pic.twitter.com/jFTrFMiCv3 — eve (@evecong) July 14, 2019

When I told him that I need to make a complaint about you and legally I am allowed to take your details. He continued to cover his badge and walk away, negating all responsibility because he said he’s ONLY supposed to be at the door but was away from it. #RETWEET @Get_Licensed pic.twitter.com/zgGZDewVCr — eve (@evecong) July 14, 2019