Molina explained in a Facebook post on Tuesday that, moments after walking into the Wildflower Bread Company near Arizona's Loop 101 and Interstate 17, she scoped out the scene in search of a place to sit down.
However, after doing so, rather than just plopping down, she asked a fellow patron whether it would be okay to take the seat, since the woman appeared to be "attentively reading her papers." And that's when things took a turn for the worse. Video footage of the encounter captures the moments after the initial confrontation, in which the blonde-haired customer tells Molina if she has a choice in whether or not she gets to take the seat.
"I was so shocked, I asked her to repeat it so I could see her face," Molina writes in her post. "Something in me said I should record it, too. Thank God I did! What you see next left me speechless."
"Well I have never been told that somebody prefers whites, instead of me," Molina is heard saying in the video. The unidentified customer responds with, "Yes, that would be me… I prefer the whole freaking nation to be white."
She later added that the US would become white and that Molina "would be wiped out."
"So this lady is telling me that she doesn't want me to sit next to her because I'm not white," Molina says before panning the camera back to the woman, who is seen moving her belongings to another table.
Proud of being both American and Puerto Rican, Molina told local outlet CBS5 that the unidentified patron shouldn't go around judging people. "She doesn't know who I am… Don't judge people without even knowing them," she told the station.
After the interaction, Molina was escorted back to her car and the woman was asked to leave the grounds.
Louis Basile, the founder of the eatery, told the station that he was "saddened and shocked" about the incident, stressing that discrimination and racism are not welcome.
"We really embrace the diversity of not only our workforce but of course our customers," Basile said. "If a guest is uncomfortable in one of our restaurants, we'd like them to come to the manager."
On Facebook, Molina wrote that she's still hopeful for a world in which her children won't have to experience such incidents.
