Student's mother hits sour notes with 'ethnic' cello teacher

A cello teacher's lessons went beyond playing an instrument when she called out a student's mother's racism.

The teacher, Ms. Asif, took a screenshot of a note from one of her student's mothers and posted it on social media. It has since gone viral.

"White people are so subtly racist, this is an email I just received from a student’s mother,” she wrote to introduce the mother's note.

Asif blotted out the name of the mother, but in later exchanges, called her "Mrs. D." Asif also posted her response, that speaks for itself:

Asif also wrote:

"also for those people wondering why his clothes have an ‘ethnic stench’ it’s because this kid is always mfing hungry, his parents once told me they skip on his meals so he could lose weight, the kid is 9!!!!!! so I always feed him whatever’s cooked at home bcos I feel for the kid"

Asif later clarified later that she is an Uyghur Muslim – a minority of the Turkic ethnic group originating from the general region of Central and East Asia – not an “Indian,” as the mother repeatedly called her.

The Uyghurs are cultural minorities centered in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China.

When the mother came to Asif's house to clear up the "misunderstanding," Asif fed her some "ethnic" snacks. The meeting didn't go so well.

In her Dec. 30 posting, Asif says the mother, Mrs. D, tried to explain how strong the "Indian smells" are and didn't see anything wrong in her note.

"She went on saying how she has Indian friends and loves Bollywood and Indian food, again she knows I’m not Indian so she is quite obviously deliberately humiliating me. I asked her to apologise because I was obv offended, she said ‘I’d apologise if I had said something wrong’" wrote Asif. 

"She started fully sobbing and the whole time I was just there like ...? I’m not about to let you be the victim here, if anyone’s the victim it’s your son m8. She goes ‘I’m sensing a lot of hostility here which I do not appreciate at all’ I was like yo??? "

Mrs. D called her husband who came to Asif's house and berated the cello teacher. Asif threatened to call child protective services for allegedly starving their child.

The ugly confrontation ended with Mrs. D. apologizing "for being a racist."

Asif's final posting ended by saying:

"Anyway, please stand firmly for what you believe in, demand respect and accept nothing less of it, and if something doesn’t look right please let someone know, someone may be suffering silently."