Let’s be honest: as far as we’ve come as a species, we’ve still got plenty of kinks to iron out. And we think everyone can agree that racism is one of the worst. Treating people differently all because of their skin color is absurd, but the problem just won’t go away.
One Hispanic guy turned to an online community to share his story of a dramatic mix-up in a park involving his Caucasian bestie’s kid and a woman who flipped out after she saw them horsing around. She instantly called the cops, and that’s where things got interesting.
More info: Reddit
Racists are the worst, especially when they don’t even make an effort to hide it
Image credits: senivpetro / Freepik (not the actual photo)
One Hispanic guy, who describes himself as on the larger side, was playing in a park with his white bestie’s kid when a woman started ranting at him, phone out and filming
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
She demanded the guy put the giggling red-headed kid down, telling him she’d already called the cops, so he did, not wanting any trouble
Image credits: bristekjegor / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Things escalated when she actually grabbed the little boy by the arm, snatching him so hard she left a bruise
Image credits: pvproductions / Freepik (not the actual photo)
When the eventually cops showed up, though, she was the one who ended up in cuffs before too long
Image credits: throwawayyikes45
Now the guy’s turned to an online community, wondering if having the bigoted woman arrested was a jerk move
Imagine enjoying a wholesome day at the park with a kid who basically thinks you’re a human jungle gym… then suddenly getting accused of kidnapping. That’s what happened to the original poster (OP), a 6-foot, 300-pound oilfield worker who has been “uncle of the year” to his best friend’s red-headed son since day one.
While giving the kid, “Marcus”, a fun day out, playtime turned into a mini mission: chase the giggling child down and carry him back to the car. Cute, right? Well, not according to a random park vigilante who thought a large Hispanic man plus a small white child must mean kidnapping. She got in OP’s face, grabbed the boy’s arm, and called the cops.
Marcus immediately hid behind OP, bruised where the stranger had snatched at him. The situation escalated fast. Police arrived, separated everyone, and started asking questions. Fortunately, OP had one secret weapon: his wife. Tiny, furious, and Welsh, she showed up armed with nine years’ worth of adorable photos of OP and Marcus.
The officers quickly figured out the actual aggression came from the self-appointed hero, not the man carrying the happy kid. The woman ended up arrested, leaving Marcus safe and OP asking netizens whether or not he could have handled things better, or at least any differently.
Image credits: noxos / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Let’s be real: things can go sideways fast when racism rears its ugly head. The woman obviously had the wrong idea (or a few) and didn’t think twice before acting on it. At least her stint as a vigilante backfired on her, but it all makes one thing crystal clear: she’s a racist. So, what’s the deal with racism anyway? We went looking for answers.
Randolph Walker from EBSCO explains that racism as a widespread social phenomenon rose in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries as European explorers in unfamiliar lands encountered indigenous peoples who looked, spoke, and lived very differently.
According to Walker, racial hierarchies were invented to help those in power justify the exploitation of other peoples, even up to the level of denying their humanity. We all know the mess that’s led to. Interestingly enough, ancient and medieval worlds generally didn’t even identify people by race, but in geographic terms instead.
The folks at DoSomething say that, in New York City, 88% of police stops in 2018 involved Black and Latinx people. Of those stops, 70% were completely innocent. Here’s another shocker: on average, Black men in the US receive sentences that are 19.1% longer than those of White men convicted for the same crimes. That’s just all kinds of wrong, and racism hard at work.
We’d say the obvious bigot in OP’s story got exactly what was coming to her. Perhaps in future she’ll think twice before jumping to another POC conclusion.
What do you think? Was having the woman arrested going too far, or did she deserve to be dragged off in cuffs? Share your opinion in the comments!
In the comments, readers came to the swift conclusion that the original poster did the right thing and that the dangerously racist woman got what was coming to her
