A white woman was caught in a video repeatedly screaming the N-word toward at least one Black person who tried to intervene in an apparent scuffle.
Twitter user Hamdia Ahmed shared the video on Tuesday of the altercation. According to her tweet, it took place in Portland, Maine.
Ahmed, whose bio says she is a model and social justice activist, did not respond to repeated requests for comments.
https://twitter.com/hamdia_ahmed/status/1158901894296821760?s=20
The video begins with unclear screaming from the white woman, who is seen walking across the street from the camera.
As the woman wearing a picnic hat and pink shorts walks and screams at people who are not within the frame, Ahmed shouts to her, “Hey that’s not nice.”
“Yea why don’t you tell her n****r,” the woman screams back, raising her middle finger at Ahmed. “Fuck you! Fuck you.”
“Tell your goddamn n****r friend,” the woman continues. “She ain’t fucking nice.”
“Please be nice you don’t have to use that word,” says Ahmed before the video ends.
According to follow-up tweets by Ahmed, she had stepped outside a store to check the situation after she heard someone screaming the N-word.
“Then I saw that this [woman] was yelling at a group of people,” she said in the tweet. “I told her to be kind … she told me ‘ get your n***** friends.’”
when you're 13 and a theatre full of white kids are turning around in their seats to stare and point and laugh at you and all your classmates while their teachers do nothing, it's indescribable how horrible that feels
— Letia (@yikesaesthetic_) August 7, 2019
She said she took her original video down because she’s traumatized. But posting it back on Twitter inspired others to share their experiences on social media, too.
when you're 13 and a theatre full of white kids are turning around in their seats to stare and point and laugh at you and all your classmates while their teachers do nothing, it's indescribable how horrible that feels
— Letia (@yikesaesthetic_) August 7, 2019
https://twitter.com/XQueen_FresaX/status/1158913317240483840?s=20
Some people applauded her for maintaining her grace during the confrontation.
https://twitter.com/CynthiaEriVo/status/1158916664051798016?s=20
https://twitter.com/willjouko/status/1158904413983051776?s=20
https://twitter.com/Suz7272/status/1158911209153781760?s=20
So I just want to say thank you for doing something. Sure she didn't stop but I bet it made the other people involved feel better even if they didn't say so. And thank you for being kind to her because I've found that's the best way to respond to hate
— Letia (@yikesaesthetic_) August 7, 2019
While some criticized her for being too generous toward the woman using racist language, others pointed out why as a Black Muslim woman in a hijab, it could get complicated for her to intervene in any other way.
“A Black Muslim woman putting her hands on a white woman….in MAINE? Alone? You did the right thing to speak up & expose her. If someone else wanted to do more, they can,” a Twitter user replied.
Ahmed also said later that she was alone addressing the situation.
“Their [sic] were many white peoples driving and walking by,” she wrote in another follow-up tweet. “No one said anything except me.”
I felt like this was the only way for me to handle this situation. Even though she called me a “nigger” I didn’t say anything mean to her. I wanted to let her know that being hateful is not the answer.
— Hamdia Ahmed (@hamdia_ahmed) August 7, 2019
According to an open letter she wrote to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in July, Ahmed grew up in the same refugee camp as the congresswoman, before moving to America with her family.
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