White restaurant owner defends using 'racist and sexist' slur as name of new eatery

'It’s just a name,' says owner Ryan Vermaak. 'Some people like it, some people won’t – you can’t please everybody'

A white restaurant owner has defended using a racist, sexist slur as the name of his new eatery in South Africa. (Screengrab/Instagram)

A white restaurant owner has defended using a racist and sexist slur as the name of his eatery by saying “you can’t please everybody”.

Ryan Vermaak and his business partner Fabio di Cosmo – who are both Caucasian – opened Misohawni this month in a suburb of the South African city of Johannesburg.

The restaurant serves ramen and Korean barbecue.

Misohawni is a word often used to sexually harass Asian women. It is believed to have originated from a scene in the 1987 Stanley Kubrick film Full Metal Jacket, in which a Vietnamese prostitute solicits sex from two soldiers by repeatedly saying “me so horny” and “me love you long time”.

Mr Vermaak told South African radio station Jacaranda FM that there was “no inspiration” behind the name.

“It’s just a name,” he said. “Some people like it, some people won’t – you can’t please everybody. There’s nothing really much more to say about it. There’s no double meaning behind it. It’s just a play on words.”

A picture of two men standing outside the restaurant, believed to be Mr Vermaak and Mr di Cosmo, was shared from a Twitter account with the caption: “Our awesome sign is up! Wesohawni!”

The bio of the Twitter profile also reads: “RAMEN! AMEN! Cumming Soon.”

The name has sparked outrage on social media from around the world.

Taiwanese copywriter Ming-Cheau Lin, who is based in Cape Town, responded with a tweet of her own.

“As an Asian woman, I really hate the name. It might seem funny but when men say it while they sexually harass you it’s not," she wrote. “A whole group of people discussed and okayed this. That’s what kills me! No one thought it was a bad idea!”

Another Twitter user from New York, called Dakota Kim, wrote: “This phrase has been said to me on the street by men harassing me. It’s been cracked to me as a joke. I’ve held my head high in life despite this haranguing.

“When you put this on your sign, your menu, you celebrate your power over me. Your power to make me feel like s**t just seeing it exists.”

A now-deleted article from food website EatOut is believed to have called Misohawni a “cheekily named spot” and said it was inspired by “similar underground spots” the owners had visited in Berlin.