Getting off your flight is usually the least dramatic bit of a journey. However, that was not the case for Dr. Michael Park, whose recent trip with United Airlines ended with a racist encounter. The Denver dermatologist took to Instagram and TikTok to share his version of the story with his sizable following and to hold United accountable. In the video, he claimed that a disheveled man was at the gate, behind the desk, which made Park assume he was an employee.
Park claimed, “He’s going, ‘Welcome! Welcome!’ and then he gets to me. And then he looks at me and goes, ‘Konnichiwa.’ In this mocking, like, tacky fake accent tone like it’s a joke.” Park noted that he was Korean, not Japanese. “If you know anything about the history between those two countries, which I assume his ignorant self did not, you know that that’s not a harmless little mix-up that one might think it is.”
