A woman was driving through a parking lot in California when she claims a woman “stepped out in front of her.” While her daughter recorded, she circled back around to capture the angry woman’s reaction and what she had to say. Unfortunately, it ended up being a nasty slur.
Posted in r/PublicFreakout, the video shows a Black woman driving in the parking lot of a California strip mall. While driving, a woman allegedly walked out in front of her vehicle, and she swerved, almost hitting her. The driver circles back around to the stunned and angry pedestrian, who is already recording and yelling at her. The pedestrian tells her to “learn how to drive” and continues screaming at her.
Both the driver and the woman get into a screaming match while the woman’s friends are standing all around, watching the fight. The mother continues screaming, “You shut the [expletive] up!” while the shopper asks, “What are you gonna do? Are you going to fight me right now?”
Eventually, the woman tells the driver she’s going to “call the cops,” then calls the Black woman the N-word. The young lady’s friend gasps and gets into their vehicle, laughing about it. The pedestrian continues to throw out racial slurs and then scurries back inside her vehicle.
Astounded, the mother tries to explain she only said something in the first place because the pedestrian stepped out in front of her. She said she only told her to “watch where she was going” and it didn’t have to lead to this.
Commenting on the slur, the driver says, “Then you wonder why the [expletive] we ain’t marching with you,” followed by more cursing. After more bickering from one of the other passengers telling the driver to learn how to drive, the conversation ends.
The Internet condemns both driver and pedestrian
On Reddit, the response to the mother’s hotheaded decision to confront the woman was frowned upon. Some commenters were less understanding of the pedestrian’s blatant racism. “Says the slur then immediately runs to the car and gets in,” wrote a commenter.
Many wondered why the driver bothered to escalate the situation in the first place. “Normalize letting [expletive] go. Nothing was gained out of further engagement by either side on this, and for what?” one Reddit user wrote.
One commenter was perplexed by what the mother was referring to when she talked about marching alongside them. A Reddit user offered an explanation, saying it may have something to do with “a perception in the Black community that Hispanics are racist.” If true, then that would be the driver’s own racial bias leaking through.
“Everyone sucks here,” said one Reddit user, and that appears to be the general consensus. That said, there’s never a good reason—even if someone’s being rude—to resort to racism. All it did was make the situation worse.
