Man sprayed with cleaning product in horrifying attack on New York subway

A video showing the moment a man is attacked on a New York subway has surfaced.

The footage shows a young man standing across the subway carriage wordlessly as he is sprayed with an aerosol by another man demanding he move away.

This seems to be another case of people who appear to be of Asian descent being targeted as fears of the spread of coronavirus increase, along with misconceptions of how to catch the virus.

Facebook user Doris Au posted the videos on their account, though it is unclear whether they filmed the interaction.

The unidentified man repeatedly shouts at other passengers;

“Tell him to move.”

When an unidentified passenger asks why, he replies;

“He’s standing right fucking next to me. I don’t want him under me.”

As he is shouted at, the victim keeps his cool and remains standing against the doors.

The abusive man then picks up an aerosol can of what looks like a cleaning product or air freshener, and sprays it at him.

As he sprays, the man says loudly across the carriage;

“I asked you nicely. You better move my friend.”

In a second video, the younger man asks;

“Why is that? Why can’t I sit next to you?”

A woman then intervenes and pulls him to the other side of the carriage as the abusive man shouts after him;

“You being dumb right now.”

The videos have gained 1.5 million views combined, with many comments suggesting the attack was racially motivated due to the victim’s perceived Asian ethnicity.

This racist shit needs to stop just wash your fucking hands and stop making excuses to be hateful.

While others questioned this method of personal hygiene...

Is he really walking around with a can of air freshener thinking it's going to protect him from a virus?

However the comments were also flooded with racist abuse directed at the perpetrator, who is black.

In situations like this, you see where the racism really jumps out of people. This one guys is being ignorant to this Asian guy and everyone in the comments resorts to racist derogatory terms towards black people in general. I can’t have any empathy for you guys when I know that you’re no better than the guy in the video 🤷🏽‍♀️

While the attack is undoubtedly appalling, racism can never be fought with racism.

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