A Black man in Chicago, Illinois, went into a store and confronted a white woman for working during the ICE Out protest in the city. While some say he went too far, others applauded his effort to share his message. Meanwhile, a coworker came to her defense online.
The brief interaction was shared online by Forever Band Lockedinking. In the clip’s caption, he explained that he intended to guilt the white employee for refusing to take part in the shutdown and coming to work, all while the ICE Out protest occurred.
“Just wanna say, you played yourself today,” the Illinois man told the lady while approaching her, handing her a flyer for the protest. “You came to work, and it’s a protest shutdown.”
The woman, while saying she understood, said she still needed to pay rent. He wouldn’t back down and asked if she was Native American. Again, the employee said she understood, and the man continued by saying, “Rent is not gonna be a thing in a second. You’re not gonna have a place to be at.”
The Illinois man walked away at first, but the woman said something to him that brought him back. He argued that things will “not be regular in the second,” adding that ICE is killing White people, referencing Renée Good and Alex Pretti, both of whom were killed by law enforcement agents.
Mixed Reactions, Coworker Speaks Out
The man walked away, followed by his cameraman. The clip garnered more than 23.8K likes on Instagram, with many reacting to his video, calling it “revolutionary.”
“Somebody please turn this into a TV show,” one user said. Another one commented, “OK, this is good. Guilt and shame work! Keep going.”
Others, however, called him out, labeling his content as performative. One user wrote, “Weird that you think it’s okay to film and bully strangers for content.” Another one asked, “Isn’t your job technically filming content for the internet?“
One user in particular, LaNia, who is a Black woman, claimed to be the woman’s coworker. She said that after she came back from her break, she found the lady, Natalie, upset. LaNia then told the man that she was disappointed that he recorded her without her consent “just to get some [expletive] likes.”
