A few days remain for Thanasi and Sophia Papoulias’ GoFundMe campaign to send a grocery store manager in Southern California who stepped in and asked an offensive women to leave the story. Why was the woman offended? Because Thanasi and Sophia were speaking Greek amongst themselves.
The story went viral after The Pappas Post picked it up and posted on our Facebook page. Thanasi’s original video has been viewed almost a million times and news organizations in Greece, Mexico, the UK— even George Takei— picked up the story and shared it on their social media platforms.
The story was largely received as a shocking testament to intolerance of this American couple’s decision to speak the native language of their parents and grandparents and much of the vitriol online was directed against the woman who told the couple to “speak fucking English.”
But Thanasi and Sophia didn’t want to focus on the negative— instead, drawing attention to the deeds of the manager of the store who stepped in to ask the woman to leave the store. Taking this one step further, Thanasi and Sophia set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to send the manager to Greece, to experience the country for herself.
Dozens of people pitched in $5, $10 or more and to date, just a few days before the campaign is set to expire, the campaign has raised in excess of $5000 towards its $6000 goal.
Thanasi is updating the experience regularly on his blog, Excuse Me Are You Greek and updates are posted regularly on the GoFundMe page.
2 comments
Malakies, why do things like this make news? I expect a higher level of journalism from Thanasi and the Pappas post. America has thousands more ignorant folks than this crazy lady and this money could be better used for Greek education or to help the helpless, but instead you are raising money to send an employed person to Greece, where she may be subject to similar treatment by locals.
Things like this makes news because people need to be reminded of where we are. It’s education within itself. The reality of our world. The manager’s trip to Greece is a kind gesture. That is never a waste. Practice compassion.