Sooner or later, Karens and their Ken-tlemen Kounterparts (KKK) are going to learn that in the age where everyone is carrying around cameras in their pockets, racial profiling can and will result in consequences.
On Wednesday, we reported on a Black teen in Sarasota, Florida, who recorded video footage of himself being followed and harassed by a group of white men who slang wild accusations at him, grilled him about why he was in the neighborhood and refused to believe that he was, in fact, a resident there.
It all took place just after Hurricane Milton had ravaged the area, leaving many residents without power. So, basically, neither snow nor rain nor a Category 5 hurricane will keep white supremacists from doing their work.
The teen’s mother, Whitney Portela, posted clips of the video on social media, and now, the four white men seen in the video are under investigation by the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. Also, it appears that at least one of them has found himself out of a job. (You might call it karma; you might even call it KKKarma, but, really, there’s nothing especially cosmic about direct consequences for one’s actions.)
From Atlanta Black Star:
On Facebook, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office posted that it is “aware of a video circulating on various social media platforms of an incident that occurred in the Skye Ranch neighborhood on Thursday, October 10.”“Detectives have been assigned and are actively locating and interviewing witnesses in what appears to be an altercation involving neighbors and a male subject who was recording himself as he was walking,” the post reads.The agency requests anyone with any information about the incident to call the office or its investigations bureau.The president of the Sarasota branch of the NAACP told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that the organization is working alongside the sheriff’s office and the teen’s family.
As previously reported, one of the men appeared to have been identified by internet sleuth That Danesh Guy as Stephen Carega, who worked for London Stock Exchange Group (LSED) until the company got wind of him and his friends’ sheKlananegans.
“You may be aware of a concerning video shared on social media which featured one of our employees in the US. The individual involved was initially suspended while we investigated the matter,” LSED wrote on its LinkedIn page. “The investigation has now concluded, and the individual’s employment has been terminated.
“We expect the conduct of our employees to meet a high standard. LSEG operates a zero-tolerance policy against any form of racism, discrimination, prejudice or harassment.”
And make no mistake, this was, indeed, harassment. It was exactly the kind of harassment familiar to anyone who has experienced walking while Black in a predominately white neighborhood. This altercation felt like an Ahmaud Arbery incident waiting to happen — right down to the moment one of the men was seen reaching into his vehicle for what many believe was a weapon. The teen’s mother is thankful her son didn’t suffer Arbery’s fate.
More from Atlanta Black Star:
“Obviously, he doesn’t live here,” one man is heard saying in the background.“You’ve been past my house four times, I don’t know you, I’ve never seen you before and you’re walking past my house over and over again,” another man tells the teen.“Do you live out here?” another man asks.“I’m a part of the neighborhood,” the teen responds.“Do you live here? You went up to my wife,” one man accuses.“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the teen states. “And I think I can walk around my neighborhood.”“Yeah, if you live here,” one of the men responds.Portela stated that while the clips only show parts of the interaction, her son was followed for more than ten minutes.“I am so happy he recorded every moment, and thankful my child is still here,” Portela wrote on TikTok. “I do not want to live in a community that does not welcome me and my children because of the color of our skin.”
Yeah — the men seen in the video are probably longing for the day when a white man could harass the Black people in his proximity in peace without being exposed via camera phones, the internet and people who are tired of white vigilantes asserting their non-authority on every Black person who they feel doesn’t belong in their neighborhoods. This new technological world is making it too damn hard for racists to hide in the shadows.
And we love that for them.
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