The owners of a Haitian food truck are suing a small town in Virginia over allegations that a town council member cut the food truck's water line and screamed, ‘Go back to your own country.’

A married couple who fled Haiti for Virginia achieved their American dream when they opened a variety market on the Eastern Shore, selling hard-to-find spices, sodas and rice to the region’s growing Haitian community.

When they added a Haitian food truck, people drove from an hour away for freshly cooked oxtail, fried plantains and marinated pork.

But Clemene Bastien and Theslet Benoir are now suing the town of Parksley, alleging that it forced their food truck to close. The couple also say a town council member cut the mobile kitchen’s water line and screamed, “Go back to your own country!”

“When we first opened, there were a lot of people” ordering food, Bastien said, speaking through an interpreter. “And the day after, there were a lot of people. And then … they started harassing us.”

  • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
    53·
    10 months ago

    Racism is so ugly and stupid. It is always wild people saying go back to your own country when they are not natively from here as well usually.

    • stoly@lemmy.world
      24·
      10 months ago

      I’m from the US and have been told to go back to where I come from based on my name alone.

      • otp@sh.itjust.works
        6·
        10 months ago

        I think they were referring to indigenous people. But you’re right, even 2nd generation immigrants who are American citizens get told to go back “where they came from”

        • kase@lemmy.world
          8·
          10 months ago

          In my state at least, native folks are sometimes mistaken for being hispanic based on the way they look… so I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens to them too on occasion. ×_×

          • lad
            5·
            10 months ago

            Now that would be top notch irony. A very sad one, too

    • lad
      7·
      10 months ago

      In my home country there are minorities, as I would guess in most other countries, and they quite often are told to go back to where they came from, despite literally being native to the country 🤦‍♂️

      • Herbal Gamer@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        10 months ago

        I’m dutch. We colonized anything darker than pale and stole everything we could and now people complain about multiculturalism.

        • lad
          3·
          10 months ago

          No, an Old World country, so most inhabitants have been living on the same territory for at least a millennium