An after-school arts studio owner who went on a racist tirade at a Melbourne Bunnings has been forced to close her business after receiving death threats.
Monarchs Arts Studio founder Alice Krause also received threats that her premises, frequented by school children, would be firebombed after she was caught on camera telling an Asian motorist to ‘go back to China‘.
The video showed Krause in a blue jumper hurling insults through the motorist’s open driver’s door during the ugly confrontation at Bunnings Hawthorn on Wednesday.
In the video, the man could be heard repeatedly saying ‘I go straight, you give way,’ while the woman pointed at him.
‘You filthy, go the f*** back to China,’ she said.
‘That’s not how you drive in this country.’
Krause was spotted swiftly entering her Hawthorn studio on Friday afternoon to do an interview with a TV news outlet before leaving via a side exit and being driven to an unknown location.
The business was tagged twice with the words ‘racist’ in black spray paint scrawled across two front windows of the Auburn Road premises.
Monarchs Arts Studio founder Alice Krause arrives at her Hawthorn business on Friday
Vandals scrawled ‘racist’ in black spray paint on the front windows of the Auburn Road studio in Melbourne’s east
A man removing the graffiti told the Daily Mail Krause is ‘not a racist’
Krause arrived at the store to greet media after earlier issuing an apology:
‘I am writing to publicly apologise for the racist remarks I made to a man in a video that has been shared widely online,’ she posted online.
‘Saying “go back to China” is cruel and degrading. I take full responsibility for saying this. To the man I spoke to, I am deeply sorry. You deserved to be treated with dignity and respect. I insulted you and spoke to you as though you had no right to belong here. That was wrong…’
Krause, an artist and teacher, also apologised to her clients as her after-school business remains in limbo.
‘To my students at Monarchs Art Studio, I am sorry I let you down. I’ve asked you to treat each other with kindness and respect, and you had every reason to expect me to live by those same standards. You deserved a better example from me,’ she wrote.
‘To the parents, carers and families who have trusted me with their children, I am deeply sorry. You trusted me to create a studio where children feel welcome and respected. My behaviour has given you reason to question that trust…’
A man, who the Daily Mail witnessed scraping the graffiti off the after-school studio and who was seen driving Krause from the business, said she was not a ‘racist’.
The man, who claimed he did not work at the studio, agreed that what Krause said at the Bunnings was racist.
Krause swiftly leaves her studio after giving an interview to a news outlet
Krause stood in front of the motorist’s car after her racist tirade
Krause, an artist and teacher, also apologised to her clients as her after-school business remains in limbo
He also said he had known Krause for ‘quite a long time’ but when asked about the nature of their relationship he said that was a ‘personal question’.
The man, who did not reveal his name, told the Daily Mail the studio would not be re-opening for the foreseeable future’.
‘Look, this is not safe, this is a children’s venue, this is violence,’ the man said as he was gesturing to the graffiti he was scraping off the front window of the Auburn Road studio.
‘There’s been death threats, there’s been people threatening to firebomb, it’s dangerous, it’s dangerous to expose kids to that kind of violence.’
The window-scraper confirmed Krause had given a lengthy statement to a TV news outlet earlier on Friday as she makes moves to salvage her reputation.
‘I’m not going to speak for her, she’s spoken for herself but I know she’s not racist, what she said was racist, it’s certainly unfortunate and very regrettable,’ he said.
The video showed Krause in a blue jumper hurling insults through the motorist’s car door during the ugly confrontation at Bunnings Hawthorn on Wednesday
The man also said he wasn’t sure if any parents had cancelled due to the racist video which went viral on Thursday but he expected there ‘certainly’ would have been.
He said many had reached out in support and local businesses had offered to help scrub off the two graffiti tags reading ‘racist’ which appeared on the business’s front windows on Friday morning.
‘The community and her clients have been very supportive,’ the man said.
Krause gained infamy after her victim’s son uploaded the racist footage to Reddit and wrote: ‘My parents got vile racist remarks slung at them at the Bunnings Hawthorn car park by a middle-aged woman.’
The Reddit poster’s dad could be seen shutting the door before Krause walked to the front of his car and stood there with her hands on her hips, blocking its path.
The above man said Krause had received death threats
The motorist’s son claimed Krause had tried to merge into his parents’ lane without indicating and sounded her horn when they did not let her in.
‘She proceeded to block them from parking in a spot with her car, and then mum pulled out her phone and this video occurred,’ he said.
‘Dad left to park in another spot after this.’
In the Reddit post, the motorist’s son called the incident ‘straight up just unAustralian’.
‘Honestly never thought this would happen in Melbourne, especially not out in the public, so brazen and fully unabashed,’ he said.
‘They’ve been in Australia for almost 30 years, so I’d wager they’ve been in Australia for almost as long as this lady has been alive.
‘It’s made me quite upset, so I’m posting this to spread awareness that this kind of public racism is growing, and it needs to be seen firsthand to be believed.’
