Mexican engineer fired after racist gesture toward South Korean influencer at World Cup match

A racist incident in the stands at the 2026 World Cup in Mexico led to the firing of Ulises Bernal, a senior official at Mexico’s engineering chamber. Bernal was caught on video mocking South Korean social media star Yoon Su-jin during a match, prompting a public backlash and an ethics review that ended his tenure immediately.

The confrontation happened while Yoon, who runs the account “Incocat_t” and has nearly 9 million followers on TikTok and YouTube, was filming herself celebrating her national team’s first win over the Czech Republic. Wearing a Mexico jersey and standing behind her, Bernal laughed, made several gestures, and finally pulled his eyes sideways in a clearly racist gesture aimed at her Asian appearance.

Yoon, stunned by the scene, posted the footage online and wrote, “I traveled all the way to Mexico for the World Cup, am I being too sensitive? Perspective: flew halfway around the world for the World Cup... and experienced racism.” The clip went viral almost immediately, drawing anger from millions of her followers and commenters around the world.

After the criticism mounted, the government engineers’ ethics committee met and removed Bernal from his post at once. An organization spokesperson said, “We are deeply saddened by what happened because of this incident.” Bernal later posted a formal apology on X, saying he regretted his actions and had also apologized to Mexicans who did not identify with them, while the online debate continued over whether the behavior was “local humor” or unacceptable racism.