An official from the California city of Coronado near San Diego has been put on leave and his wife, a private school teacher, has been fired after a viral TikTok showed the couple spewing anti-Asian slurs.
The video, filmed in a parking lot in nearby Newport Beach, shows Roger Miller and his wife Sandra Miller making racist statements against Asians, including comments about Chinese people being responsible for COVID-19.
See the video below.
WARNING: offensive language
from PublicFreakout
In the video, Sandra Miller can be heard saying:
“I love that we are not in their country. I love that we are not communism. I love that very much... America is a free country. Go back to China.”
As word began to spread about the video, both Sandra's and Roger's employers quickly responded.
The city of Coronado, where Roger Miller is director of recreation and golf services, took swift action, with Coronado City Manager Tina Friend issuing a statement in which she confirmed Roger Miller had been placed on administrative leave "pending an independent, full and fair investigation.''
Friend went on to say:
"Our city's culture and values are core to who we are and that culture is based on professionalism, service and respect. We take matters such as this extremely seriously and the City has zero tolerance for all forms of discrimination.''
For Sandra Miller, the consequences were far more stiff.
Her employer, Linfield Christian School in nearby Temecula, California, immediately terminated Sandra Miller.
The school addressed her termination in an online statement, which read:
"After speaking with Ms. Miller regarding the incident, Linfield has terminated her employment immediately. The statements made by Ms. Miller do not reflect the beliefs of Linfield, are inconsistent with Linfield’s mission statement and fail to meet the behavior Linfield expects employees to model for its students.”
On social media, people were appalled by the Millers behaviors and applauded their employers for swift action.
That's Roger Miller with his wife, Sandra Miller. I feel sorry for their neighbors in Temecula.— S. E. Shaken (@S. E. Shaken) 1643539872
FWIW, in both cases, the incidents were handled pretty well. Linfield Christian fired Sandra Miller; the city is investigating Roger Miller and will almost certainly fire him at the conclusion of the investigation. In both cases, it turns out being racist on video has blowback.— Joshua Stein, philosophy, ethics, politics (@Joshua Stein, philosophy, ethics, politics) 1643783598
Good for that school. I was wondering how they could terminate so quickly but it was SHOCKINGLY a private Christian school that apparently remembered that Jesus was not pro racism. Rare but love to see it.— Dr Anthrodiva (@Dr Anthrodiva) 1643729688
But some felt Roger Miller's consequences of administrative leave were far too lenient.
Wife was fired from her teaching job. He's still suspended. Both should be fired.https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1488533014153990152\u00a0\u2026— Doris Bivings\u264f\ud83e\udd82\ud83c\udf86\ud83c\udf86\ud83c\udf89\ud83c\udf89\ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc99\u2764\u2764 (@Doris Bivings\u264f\ud83e\udd82\ud83c\udf86\ud83c\udf86\ud83c\udf89\ud83c\udf89\ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc99\u2764\u2764) 1643733087
This right here should not be tolerated! Zero tolerance does not mean (paid?) Admin leave! My husband had his practice on this beautiful island for over 33 yrs, & we both are disgusted with the City Managers attempt to placate us! This White lady is sick of this blatant racism!https://twitter.com/CoronadoCity/status/1488290148701769730\u00a0\u2026— Janine (@Janine) 1643730527
Racist Christian school teacher Sandra Miller had been fired from her job. Equally racist city official husband is on paid vacation. @coronadocity stop dawdling around and fire Roger Miller immediately. #StopAsianHate\u202f\u202f\u202fhttps://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/california-news/racism-allegations-viral-video-lead-to-coronado-official-on-leave-wife-fired-from-school-job/2813240/\u00a0\u2026— Pin Young \ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83d\udcfd\ud83c\udf99\ud83c\udfbb (@Pin Young \ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83d\udcfd\ud83c\udf99\ud83c\udfbb) 1643778955
Let\u2019s see some accountability. We clearly saw a video of your \u201cemployee\u201d attacking someone. More needs to be done #StopAsianHate nowhttps://twitter.com/CoronadoCity/status/1488290148701769730\u00a0\u2026— Z\ud83c\udf6aE BAKES CAKE (@Z\ud83c\udf6aE BAKES CAKE) 1643710239
Please define \u201czero tolerance.\u201d\n\nWhat is there to investigate? Did you not watch the video?\n\nAre you waiting until this blows over so you can reinstate him?— Brian (@Brian) 1643681764
Let's see... you become aware of this on Sunday and say that you will "investigate".\nI'm not sure what sort of investigation you need to make. You talk to the guy on Monday and ask him "Is this you?" then "Is there anything in the world that could excuse this?" Then you fire him.— (((Charlie Mas))) (@(((Charlie Mas)))) 1643768280
The state of California has seen a staggering increased in anti-Asian hate crimes since the pandemic began, with the state seeing a 107% increase in 2020 alone, the last year for which statistics have been published.
