Nuha Mohammed Al-Doaifi, 21, an engineering student at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, was arrested on a charge of misdemeanour battery at the Palm Bay WalMart.
But the hate-crime determination could mean that the charge may be elevated to third-degree felony.
Authorities say that Al-Doaifi spat in the face of a WalMart customer who was trying to help her after the student was butting her trolley into the exit door of the supermarket.
She also allegedly spat at another customer who ‘got too close to her’, but the spittle managed to miss him.
When she was arrested, she told officers that she was spitting on ‘white people’ because a ‘higher authority’ made her do it and that ‘Americans are pushing us around.’
