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San Antonio shops reopen after ignorant comments close doors

The last thing we want to do on top of this virus protocol is add into that bigotry and whatnot," the business owner said.

It's been a long time since you could come to Kuma and get that much-needed sugar fix.

But that time off was unfortunately needed after co-owner Kevin Chu heard the comments.

"We had some of the kids, their parents, were like, 'No we don't want ya'll to go in because we don't know if the owners are from China' and we're like, that's kind of weird," Chu recalled early on during the pandemic. 

"We're local and so we don't want to ever jump to those conclusions so we were taken aback that things like that were starting to happen."

Chu told KENS 5 that shortly after, he saw another comment on his other business page.

"Someone commented on one of the photos, 'Do ya'll serve bat soup?' and I was like wow, this is what we're living in right now in 2020."

It's those messages that led him to make the tough decision to close his doors temporarily.

"Because the last thing we want to do on top of this virus protocol is add into that bigotry and whatnot," Chu added.

But after the city of San Antonio passed a resolution against coronavirus hate speech, he felt more at ease.

RELATED: SA mayor defends city's 'anti-hate speech' resolution

"It's a small percentage of people that are targeting us," he said. "You can't stop people thinking what they want to think. It's definitely one of those things is it's better to have allies."

It's those allies that are now keeping these doors open. As he encourages others to look past race and look for local.

"Asian business or not right now as Texans we need to support local," he said. "The stronger everybody pulls together the stronger we get out of this."

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