California driver was waiting at a light when an older man walked by, made an apparent anti-Asian gesture, then stopped to do it again

A man in California is facing criticism online after a video surfaced that appears to show him making an anti-Asian gesture toward a driver who was stopped at a traffic light. The driver captured the encounter on his vehicle cameras and posted the footage on Reddit with the title Random Racism, according to The Nerd Stash.

The video appears to show the man walking alongside the car while looking directly at the driver. He seems to pull the corners of his eyes with his fingers to make them appear smaller. The man walks away for a moment, but he stops and appears to repeat the anti-Asian gesture for a longer period before walking off.

The driver eventually drives away from the scene. He provided some context in his post, writing, “Lol this guy just starts doing the eye slant gesture. Whos grandpa is this? By the post office on Del Mar and Las Tunas.”

The man apparently walked off and came back to do it again

“The Tesla has 9 cameras filming at all times. I was waiting at the stoplight and he walked by and just started doing that,” the driver wrote. He said the person in the video appeared to be an older Filipino man. However, it remains unclear what may have prompted the anti-Asian gesture.

The anti-Asian gesture is widely regarded as racist, as it mocks physical features often associated with people of East Asian descent. Pulling the corners of the eyes has a long history as a taunt used to ridicule Asian people based on their appearance. This type of behavior can reinforce harmful stereotypes and may contribute to the harassment Asian communities report.

As the driver’s cameras were already recording, the footage appears to capture the full exchange from start to finish. The man seemingly walks away and then returns to perform the anti-Asian gesture a second time. However, his motive remains unknown, and the video does not appear to show anything that led up to the encounter.

Similar videos of apparent racist harassment have surfaced on social media before. A man in the UK recently shared what he described as footage of a neighbor’s note, while another viral video appeared to show a man crashing his car after allegedly harassing a group. The man in the latest video does not appear to have been publicly identified, and the driver could share further details as the anti-Asian gesture video continues to circulate online.