Tech CEO resigns after video of racist rant toward Asian family goes viral

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KION) Tech CEO Michael Lofthouse has resigned from San Francisco IT company, Solid8, after he was caught on video saying racist remarks against an Asian family at a birthday celebration in Carmel.

The video of the July 4th rant now has more than 980,000 views on Instagram.

In a statement to news outlets, Lofthouse announced his departure from the company but didn’t not say if he was asked to leave or if it was voluntary, according to our sister station, KPIX, in San Francisco.

“I will make it my duty to ensure my personal actions do not continue to have a detrimental impact on those people closest to me,” he said in the statement. “I have once again begun my journey back to sobriety and have enrolled in an anti-racist program with immediate effect. My comments towards the families involved were racist, hurtful and deeply inappropriate. The reactions to what was said have been deserved and I wholeheartedly acknowledge that I am complicit in a system that enables this behavior and these broken beliefs to exist but I am dedicated to changing.”

The video of the racist remarks sparked public outrage after it was posted to social media last week.

The video shows the diner, later identified as Lofthouse, cursing at the family as they were celebrating a birthday at the Bernardus Lodge and Spa’s Lucia restaurant.

WARNING: Video below contains profanity:

“We were singing Happy Birthday. We were just taking pictures and goofing around with each other and then all of a sudden the man, Michael Lofthouse, starts making really loud racist remarks at us,” Chan told KION in an interview.

Shortly after, a waitress stepped in, asking the man to leave.

“No, you do not talk to our guests like that. Get out of here,” the waitress could be heard saying in the video.

In a statement to KION News, Vice President and GM of Bernardus Sean Damery said the diner was taken off property without further escalation.