When I first moved here to San Francisco I witnessed a very strange interaction at REI.
An older man, maybe around 55, was following a mid 20s Chinese American woman around the store. She was really uncomfortable. He kept saying things to her like ‘my ex wife was Chinese!’ And ‘I speak Chinese!’ (She was like but I don’t)
And she just couldn’t shake him. He was like I love dumplings, I love your people
Somehow, witnessing that happening to someone else made my other interactions make sense