HOUSTON – Vareesha Khan was shopping at the Sam's Club on Cypress Creek Parkway Friday afternoon and wanted to try a sample of cheese.
But as a Muslim, Khan doesn't eat pork and wanted to make sure there was no meat in the food.
So she asked the woman giving out the samples what was in it.
That's when, Khan said, the woman got angry.
"She said, 'Go back to Mexico or wherever you're from,'" Khan said.
Khan isn't from Mexico. She's from Pakistan. But she said it doesn't matter. The comment was uncalled for and hurtful.
"'Why are you being racist?' I started to cry and went to the manager and talked with them," Khan said.
The manager handed Khan a gift card, but her family says that's not what they want.
"To be honest, I would like an apology and give them back the gift card. We don't need the $25. We just want to be treated right," Mohammad Waheed, Khan's brother, said.
They said they're a Muslim family who is accepting of all cultures and religions. They even celebrate Christmas.
They just wish others were as accepting of them.
"I don't disrespect anyone and I don't deserve that," Kham said. “We are Americans as much as they are.”
A spokesperson for Sam's Club called the incident unacceptable, and said the woman who spoke to Khan didn’t work directly for the store but was employeed by a third-party vendor in charge of handing out samples.
The worker has been suspended while they investigate what happened.
"We don't want her to lose her job," Waheed said, "We just want to make sure it doesn't happen to the next person."