Newsreader Tracy Vo’s racist encounter

A popular TV personality has recounted the moment she became the target of a vile racist interrogation while eating breakfast at a cafe.

Perth newsreader and former Today show host Tracy Vo has recounted the moment she was caught up in a racist encounter while eating breakfast at a cafe

Vo was enjoying her day off on Monday with partner Liam Connolly when she says they were approached by a woman on the street who began questioning the 38-year-old about her background.

“I was having a lovely breakfast, enjoying the winter morning outside our local cafe in Perth, when a lady approached our table,” Vo told Nine News.

“She asked where I was from, and I replied Australia.

“I had the feeling already of where this was going, but I also genuinely wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.”

Nine newsreader Tracy Vo endured a racist interrogation while eating breakfast at a Perth cafe.

Instead, the woman pressed Vo about her ethnicity – to which she replied her parents were from Vietnam.

“I thought perhaps she was just after a chat with a young couple out and about, but then it suddenly turned,” Vo said.

“She wanted to know what my religious background was and proceeded to label my family as communists.”

The woman then proceeded to offer Vo’s partner, Liam, who is of Irish heritage, some vile advice, telling him, “Don’t be had by this Asian woman.”

Vo said her partner asked the lady to leave several times and was left deeply shocked by the encounter.

“This is the first time he has experienced something like this,” she said.

For Vo, however, it was just another reminder of the narrow-minded and racist cohort that exists in Australia.

Vo says she has experienced racism in the past, but was surprised in 2022 at the level of some people’s narrow mindedness.

Vo’s parents were among thousands of migrants who fled war-torn Vietnam for a better life in Australia.

However, Vo says growing up looking different had its challenges; her skin colour becoming a target for schoolyard bullies, which had a lasting impact on her.

Since then she has been vocal about the level of racism experienced by many in Australia and how unacceptable and deeply damaging such behaviour can be.

On one occasion in 2008, Vo was approached by a man while driving, who banged on her window and delivered a flurry of racist slurs.

The man yelled at her, “This is not f---ing China. We’re not living in f---ing China.”

Vo says while she has grown accustomed to the possibility of racism being directed at her, the latest experience was not something she expected to see in 2022.

“To the woman who thought that she was educating my partner, I hope you find some peace and learn from your comments,” she said.