California College Faculty Member On Leave After Racist Video Goes Viral

A California college faculty member was placed on leave after she faced backlash for a racist rant caught on video.

Tarin Olson, who serves a career counseling position in Golden West College in Huntington Beach, was filmed telling an Asian-American man and family to go back to their “home country.”

On March 1, Tony Kao posted a video to his Facebook page, which detailed the interaction he, his wife and their infant child had with Olson.

“First, I wanted to express our sadness of experiencing racism first-hand with our baby who was exposed to this at such a young age in public and broad daylight. Second, we wanted to express our surprise that this type of racism can exist in Long Beach of all places in this age and time and to bring awareness it can happen anywhere," Kao wrote.

“We encountered a bigot and a racist today in our neighborhood in Long Beach. During our normal afternoon walk with my wife and daughter in our neighborhood, a caucasian female walked passed us completely unprovoked and said to us very nonchalantly, ‘Go Back To Your Country!’ and continued walking!” the post added.

The video begins mid-conversation, just before Olson realizes she is being filmed and walks away. She can be heard in the video, saying, “You need to go back to your home country.” The footage then shows Kao and his wife following Olson, asking for an explanation. She then proceeds to tell Kao: “It’s not safe because there’s too many people like you here. … You’re making my culture extinct.”

Responding to the backlash she faced after the video, which was viewed 600,000 times at the time of publishing this article, went viral, Olson told Los Angeles-based CBS2 News, “I feel my perspective will be twisted if discussing the skewed video which cut out part of the incident. … If you would like to have a full normal interview about the displacement of European-Americans, then I gladly am available to enlighten the public.”

A spokeswoman for Coast Community College District told the Huffington Post the district was reviewing Olson’s interactions with staff and students and taking a decision on the actions that need to be taken.

“Administrators are working diligently to find a resolution to this issue and communicate to the community that the sentiments of Tarin Olson do not represent the values of Golden West College,” spokeswoman Letitia Clark said.

Clark did not specify if the leave was voluntary or whether Olson was asked to go on leave, and added she was not in a position to offer details as “this is a personnel matter.”

She added Olson was a tenured member of the college and the institution was taking the matter “very seriously.”

“The College leadership... understands that the sentiments made by the faculty member in public are hurtful and painful, particularly for the Asian-American community,” Clark wrote.