A black activist who resides in California found himself arguing with a white man after he approached him to seek donations for programs he said were aimed at helping the Black community. The two got into an exchange so heated that at one point the white man told him that “Black lives don’t matter.”
Online, the incident has sparked a wave of outrage, particularly directed at the white individual, who many are now accusing of racism.
The confrontation happened outside the Baker & Commons cafe on College Avenue in Berkeley. In the video that was shared by the activist, who goes by @theunapologeticblackguy on TikTok, both of them stood on the sidewalk right in front of the business trading insults.
The activist accused the man of being racist and claimed he did not like Black people. He referred to him as one of the “troglodyte, uncivilized cave bigots” that would refuse to help when Black activists say “they’re looking for white people that care.”
The white man shot back as well. He called the activist “a total joke” and told him that he would eventually be “taking a knee in front of God and Jesus.”
He also responded to the accusation that he disliked black people by bringing up legendary black guitarist Jimi Hendrix as an example of a black person he “loved.” The man even claimed that the late musician would not have acted in the way the activist was behaving.
The activist, however, remained unconvinced. He replied, “Oh, you love consuming black culture, but you don’t like black people. I see it. That’s that colonizing white [thing] y’all do.”
The confrontation carried on from there, with neither man letting the other have the last word.
Another black man later jumped in, not to resolve the issue, but to argue with the white man as well. The video ends before viewers get to see how the dispute finally played out.
Netizens’ Reactions to the California Incident
In the comments section under the TikTok post, much of the reaction was critical of the white man’s remarks in the video, especially his references to religion. “How can you be religious and say another life don’t matter????” one netizen asked. “He is throwing shade and bringing up Jesus.. Blasphemy!!!” another said. A third mocked, “He thinks Jesus is gonna look past his racism lol.” A fourth wrote, “I don’t understand why these folks racist.”
His attempt to use Jimi Hendrix to argue that he liked black people also got plenty of attention. “Him talking about Jimi Hendrix thinkin he did somethin took me out hahaha,” one person laughed. Someone else even claimed that the late star would have “hit him on his head with his guitar!”
Some viewers, however, held off on judging either man because the video started when the confrontation was already underway. They questioned the activist’s own role in the dispute and wanted to know what happened before filming began. “What did you say to him for him to react that way?” one viewer asked. Another similarly demanded, “Let’s see the whole video. What was said before what we saw.”
Whatever happened before the camera started rolling remains unclear from the footage shared online. The confrontation itself, however, has attracted plenty of attention, with the TikTok video garnering more than 500,000 views and 50,000 likes.
