A black driver recorded video after a woman tapped on her passenger side window and delivered a racist rant.
Anika Vassell was parked Thursday in downtown Vancouver when the woman attracted her attention to ask where she was from, and she wasn't satisfied when the 24-year-old graduate student said she'd grown up there, reported CTV News.
“[She asked] ‘Where are you from? What country are you from?’ and I told her that my parents are Jamaican and South African and she said, ‘and you’re that black?’” Vassell said.
Vassell started recording cell phone video at that point, and the woman continued her racist rant.
“I see that you are black and I see that you’re not white so you are not like the rest of us,” the woman said. “God help us, maybe we will hold the majority.”
She also said the public would be in "big danger" if people like Vassell are "let free."
Vassell rolled up her window as the woman told her to go back to her "home country," and the student posted the video the following day on Facebook, where it was widely shared.
“It just shows that these kind of small comments happen to other people of color, other visible minorities, and that it is still an issue that racism does happen,” Vassell said. “There is no one look or person that belongs to Canada or Vancouver.”
After the social media video went viral, the white woman's family apologized to Vassell and said their mother was mentally ill, reported Global News.
“I felt bad for Anika, the driver,” said Christian Chiribelea, the woman's son. “Someone coming up to you and knocking at your door and saying some racist stuff must have been hard for her.”
He said his mother had been diagnosed with schizophrenia nearly three years ago, and has been prescribed medication.
“It’s hard to get people to take their medication especially when they are really paranoid, so she doesn’t take it anymore,” he said.
Chiribelea said his mother had been targeted for abuse online, and he asked for more understanding of her illness.
“She’s already paranoid as is," he said. "It’s really unfortunate.”
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