Lucy White
Credit: X/@LucyJayneWhite1
A British woman's remarks over Marks & Spencer employees at London Heathrow Airport communicating in Hindi language have recently been under fire.
In a post on X (which was seen under 'protected' while writing this copy), the woman named Lucy White, shared an incident which went viral and gained widespread criticism accusing her of racism and intolerance.
Lucy wrote that she had arrived at Terminal 3 of the airport and stopped by the M&S store when she overheard three staff members speaking in a 'different language'.
She asked the staff as to which language they were speaking in and the employees replied 'Hindi'.
The woman said, "I asked them ‘What language are you speaking?’ They responded ‘Hindi’.
Lucy said that she had recorded their communication and wanted them to be reported to Marks & Spencer.
She said, "I have a voice recording & their names to report to M&S. We must confront them every time."
But her post saw criticism with social media users calling her racist. Netizens commented about 'what exactly was offensive about it' and 'what rules had the store staff broken'.
An X user wrote, "I don’t see the issue with this. If I go to France with my wife, I’ll speak English with her - it’s our native tongue. What am I missing here?"
Another said, "What arrogance. If they’re not dealing with customers, what’s the problem? Did you speak fluent Spanish during your entire holiday in Spain?"
A third user argued, "So long as they’re not addressing you in Hindi, why is it your business? Staff are allowed to talk to each other in their own language while doing routine work. This is not racism - this is common sense."
"I’ve worked with three Polish colleagues for over 20 years. They speak to each other in Polish and to me in perfect English. I don’t see why that should be a problem for anyone," another reply from a social media user read,
"Confront people who talk in a different language? No thanks. We should however confront vile bigots like yourself that make this country a much sadder, less friendlier place," another reply to her post read.