A true story, a race joke make an American lost his job

My hu*****and told me a true story that happened in his previous company, that was at least eight years ago, an American called an Indian engineer "Apu" in the office, "Apu" was a word came from the "Simpson's", maybe he tried to make fun of his Indian co-worker. Anyway, that upset the Indian engineer. So, this Indian reported that to the HR, and said that was a discrimination. The white guy ended up got fired. This is a true story.

I wonder if the same thing happened on a Chinese engineer, would that American guy get in any trouble?