Viral TikTok video captures racist incident in Gastonia

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A TikTok video viewed by tens of thousands of people shows a white motorcyclist in Gastonia pulling up beside a vehicle, screaming at the occupants, and using a racial slur.

The TikTok video, which was posted by LaLa Milan, a social influencer with 3.2 million followers, said that the man was verbally attacking his mother. Based on a street sign in the video, the motorcyclist and the vehicle were on Franklin Boulevard across from Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream, near the entrance to the Target shopping center.

The video starts as the motorcyclist yells, “you’re an idiot. You’re a f—— idiot.”

“Yeah, go ahead, put me on YouTube you f—— moron,” the man says. “You are an idiot. You can’t drive.”

“Roll your window down so you can hear me,” he went on, using the N-word twice before driving off.

After he finished yelling, the man turned right and drove toward Target. After he drives off, the video ends.

The caption on the video says: “Not this man verbally attacking my mother in Gastonia, NC.”

Finland Fair, the founder of the organization 101 Black Men, said that he saw the video shortly after it was published.

“I thought about hatred and I thought about how some people can be really and truly nice to you, but deep down inside, once they get mad, the real person comes out,” he said.

He said that the video is not reflective of the Gastonia he knows. For the viewers who might not have heard of Gastonia before seeing the video, he said, “I think that they should visit Gastonia and know that Gastonia is not represented by anything like that,” he said. “Gastonia is a friendly city, and I think the people should come out and experience Gastonia and see that it’s an old town with family values.”

In a situation like that, he said, “I would actually like to see those two people brought together. The guy just probably had a bad day. He would probably have an apology. But too, you have to be responsible for what you say .”

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Gastonia Police spokesman Rick Goodale said that based on what is shown in the video, police are reluctant to say definitively whether a crime was committed. He said that police do not know what happened before the video was filmed.

“As of right now, nobody has called to report anything to us,” he said.

Racist language is not excluded from First Amendment protection. According to Kennesaw State University, hate speech is only illegal if it falls into another category that is illegal, such as a violence or vandalism.

You can reach Kara Fohner at 704-869-1850 or email her at [email protected]. Support local journalism by subscribing here.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Man screams racial slurs during road rage incident in Gastonia

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