In a screen grab from a video posted to Instagram, a tech CEO was caught on camera yelling racist taunts at an Asian family at a restaurant in Carmel Valley, Calif., on July 4, 2020. - Obtained by ABC News
In a screen grab from a video posted to Instagram, a tech CEO was caught on camera yelling racist taunts at an Asian family at a restaurant in Carmel Valley, Calif., on July 4, 2020. – Obtained by ABC NewsBy CATHERINE THORBECKE, ABC News
(SAN FRANCISCO) — The man who was seen on-camera barraging an Asian American family with a racist rant has resigned as CEO of the cloud computing firm Solid8.
In a video that went viral last week, Michael Lofthouse can be seen smirking and giving his middle finger to the family, who were out celebrating a birthday in Carmel, California, on July 4.
“Trump’s going to f— you,” he said in the video. “You f—ers need to leave … f—ing Asian piece of s—.”
“Who are these f—ers,” Lofthouse added when staff asked him to leave, saying, “Yes, they are valued guests in America?”
Lofthouse apologized in an initial statement last week, but said in a follow-up statement Sunday that the first one “did not go far enough in addressing my behavior” and the “steps that I need to take.”
“I can confirm that I have stepped down from Solid8, terminating all business relationships with immediate effect,” Lofthouse said in the new statement. “I will make it my duty to ensure my personal actions do not continue to have a detrimental impact on those people closest to me.”
He added that he has “begun my journey back to sobriety and have enrolled in an anti-racist program with immediate effect.”
“My comments towards the families involved were racist, hurtful and deeply inappropriate,” he said. “The reactions to what was said have been deserved and I wholeheartedly acknowledge that I am complicit in a system that enables this behaviour and these broken beliefs to exist but I am dedicated to changing.”
He went on to apologize to families and the restaurant, saying he hopes that “the conversations and awareness that this incident has created can act as a catalyst for necessary change.”
Raymond Orosa, whose family was in the video, told local ABC News affiliate KGO-TV at the time that he was at the restaurant celebrating his wife’s birthday when he heard Lofthouse start spewing his anti-Asian rhetoric.
“He was full of hate and anger,” Orosa said. “And it’s sad that there is still people that are like that in this world, let alone in this country.”
Orosa said his niece filmed the video and shared it on Instagram, where it has garnered nearly a million views. It was also widely shared on Twitter and even re-shared by celebrities including Chrissy Teigen.
Last week, Orosa told KGO-TV that he though Lofthouse’s initial apology was “just saving face.”
“I think he really meant what he said and what he did,” he said. “I don’t believe his words because his actions speak louder than the words he say.”
Still, the father said while he doesn’t believe that what Lofthouse did was “acceptable or right,” he has chosen to forgive him.
“A lot of people will probably disagree with me for saying that I forgive him,” Orosa said. “But I do.”
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