Black Georgia lawmaker is told to "go back where you came from" at supermarket

[dalton99a]

https://www.newsweek.com/istandwitherica-trends-twitter-after-black-georgia-lawmaker-erica-thomas-says-she-was-told-go-1450330

#IStandWithErica Trends on Twitter after Black Georgia Lawmaker Erica Thomas Says She was Told 'Go Back Where You Came From' at Supermarket
By Chris Morran On 7/20/19 at 11:57 AM EDT

Erica Thomas, a member of the Georgia state legislature, said that she was "verbally attacked" while grocery shopping with her young daughter on Friday by a man who called her a "lazy sonofabitch" and told her to "go back where you came from."

Thomas, an African American woman who has represented Georgia's 39th District, located just west of Atlanta, since being elected in 2014, first shared her story of the incident Friday afternoon in a Facebook live video, where she tearfully recalled the events.

"I decided to go live because I'm very upset because people are getting really out of control with this, with this white privilege stuff," said the state legislator. "I'm at the grocery and I'm in... the aisle that says '10 Items or Less.' Yes, I have 15 items, but I'm nine months pregnant and I can't stand up for long. And this white man comes up to me and says, 'You lazy sonofabitch... You need to go back where you came from.'"

Thomas said she tried to explain to the man she is not lazy, just pregnant, but said his response was to call her "ignorant." She wanted to say more to this person, but "I couldn't get anything out. I could just tell him, 'Please, leave me alone, please.' And my child And my child is just sitting right there, 'Mama, mama, why would he call you that? Why would he do that?' I can't even explain to her why he has so much hate in his heart."

She also says in the full video that the five additional items in her cart were actually things that her daughter had picked up that she wanted to buy for herself, but that it shouldn't have mattered even if she were over the limit.

"I'm in Publix, trying to buy groceries. Why are you so angry at me? You don't even know me and you call me a sonofabitch and I'm ignorant and a piece of shit? I don't understand," said Thomas.

Thomas said the man continued on insulting her until a Publix employee asked him to leave. "I was scared to leave there because I thought he was gonna follow me to my car, take out a gun, you never know."

[lame54]

1. The problem here is not racism...

It's the 10 items or less line

A constant source of fights

[BootinUp]

9. Especially with pregnant women. Seen it

Thousands of times.

[yardwork]

17. I hear that it's actually economic insecurity. /

[malaise]

2. This is what the Con and all his enablers want

Imagine this is 2019

[hlthe2b]

4. Exactly... Trump male supporters, especially (but not exclusively) think they have been

"unleashed" to assert their 'superiority' and privilege over everyone. I would add that seems to be including women especially, but not only limited to female POC. I saw an asshole in my neighborhood (who seems like a Trumpster) just laying into an elderly woman sitting on a bench in a tiny neighborhood "child" playground. As she didn't have a child with her, he thought he could just ream her out for "using neighborhood resources that HE paid for"... I caught the tail end and he'd already started to leave on his bike, but she was really shaken.

As to the GA legislator's story in Publix, I'm glad the staff stood up to him, but good gawd! I cry for her (and her child who witnessed)...

[marble falls]

24. Can't imagine this in 1919. But surely this isn't racism, right ...

<insert sarcasm icon here>

[malaise]

25. LOL

He's a monster

[marble falls]

29. An enabled monster. There's going to blood over these beasts little Donnie Trump has set loose.

[malaise]

30. M$Greedia isn't helping either

They are discussing racism as a winning strategy.

[marble falls]

32. Winning stategy to win the votes of a static percentage who already vote for him. He is ...

inciting inevitable violence.

[yewberry]

3. Holy cow, that is insane.

Back in 2017, I remember people saying that the country had been this polarized during the Viet Nam/ Nixon era. I wonder if they still believe that.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

20. might have to reach back further

Maybe it was this deliberately divided at the time of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the Little Rock 9 of 1957.

Trump and the Gangsters Of Putin are insane and dangerous.

[KentuckyWoman]

5. A white guy in that part of Atlanta?

WTF was he doing there? Did he get lost or just out looking for trouble?

I really don't mean to be smarmy. I lived 4 yrs in that that part of Atlanta taking care of my sister - fighting cancer. That was back in 2004-2008 and she was about the only white family left in the whole area. Nice area too... Shocks me any white men ... especially of a racist fuck sort, hang around College Park, East Point. Those idiots would have left a decade or more ago.

[malaise]

26. I don't know which is worse

the racism or the lack of human decency. Any pregnant woman gets special treatment from me and there is no way to head a nine month pregnancy.

He's 100% racist scum.

[vlyons]

6. If anyone speaks to me in that manner, my response would be

No, I'm not lazy, but you sir/madam are mean-spirited, and spewing ugly hatred. I'm not afraid of bullies like you. Speaking such ugly words to anyone is not virtuous and marks you as a deeply ignorant, insecure, and ungenerous person. Did your parents not love you enough to teach you courteous manners? Surely you know how to be a better person than that !

Actually I don't think it would do any good. But another good response might be a simple -- No! I'm going to stay right here, where I belong, and there's nothing you can do about it. So get over it, or go eat a bug.

We cannot change other people, but we can stand up to the ignorant bullies in a calm and fearless manner. The only way such people change, if ever, is through some sort of painful experience. Frankly I think they all go to their graves as embittered angry people, because life is not fair. HEADLINE NEWS: Life is not fair!

[brush]

13. I love this proposed response of yours.

-- No! I'm going to stay right here, where I belong, and there's nothing you can do about it. So get over it, or go eat a bug.

I would also be tempted to offer to go back if he would also go back to Europe.

That would probably enrage him so I'd have to be prepared for a fight.

[barbtries]

14. in the moment

you can't really know how you would react. i think i would have been shocked as she clearly was, and spent the next month or so fantasizing all the perfect comebacks i should have used.

[klook]

28. Story of my life.

Still thinking of comebacks that would have been absolutely devastating and oh-so-delicious, in the moment years ago.


But when the time machine is invented, look out world!

[barbtries]

36. you and me both.

oh can i wax poetic after the fact.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

38. Nothing beats a good "Go fuck yourself!"

Short, to the point, easily remembered, and if delivered with force and conviction it can shut down even the most ignorant and obnoxious idiot.

Plus, it's probably the only thing they'll understand.

[onecaliberal]

7. Her child was with her, pregnant woman.

Pro life my fucking ass. The piece of shit media airing that racist mother fuckers comments is going to get someone killed. This makes me REALLY angry.

[malaise]

27. You nailed it

Pro life mine too.

[NBachers]

8. What's wrong with that mans mother? Didn't she teach him to be polite, respectful, and protective of

pregnant women and little children?

[Everyman Jackal]

10. No

She was too busy ironing the families white sheets for church.

[Demit]

33. Why blame only the mother? Aren't both parents supposed to teach values to their children?

[obamanut2012]

37. I hate this expression -- it is on him, not his mother

He is an adult. They have their own agency, and whatever upbringing they had has no bearing. And, what about his father?

Plus, Stephen Miller is a full-blown evil Fascist, and he was raised by very liberal parents.

[keithbvadu2]

11. Trump's racist tweets are firing up his base quite well.

Trump's racist tweets are firing up his base quite well.

[Duppers]

12. Damn!! nt

[Kaiserguy]

15. Trump won't be happy

Until his insane base starts to murder the people that Trump hates.

[SCVDem]

16. They don't realize it yet, but

We shoot back!
We are also trained military veterans and will not be pushed and disrespected!

We are not sheep!

[bluecollar2]

39. +1... n/t

[lpbk2713]

18. The stupid. It's everywhere.

Verbally abusing a woman? And in the presence of her daughter?

THIS is the ignorant SOB. And a coward to boot.

[malaise]

31. A very pregnant woman

at that

[kimbutgar]

19. The racists are becoming even more emboldened under this administration

What people used to think inside their minds they are now acting out. Every frickin day you see the videos and hear about these incidents. These angry unhappy white people are showing they are hateful and miserable so they act out. They listen in their cars and watch on Fox the hate and they get ginned up. I was in traffic the other day and the guy in the car next to me had Limpballs on who was sounding screechy. He was was so angry. I looked at him with a blank expression on my face at the guy and he flipped me off.

As this election gets closer I fear people will die and it wouldn’t shock me if fat donnie starts telling his racist supporters to start shooting minorities and liberals. He is that frickin insane.

[SunSeeker]

21. K & R for exposure.

[RVN VET71]

22. And so Individual-1 scores another

for his basket of deplorable. Ah, what a brave new world Trump has built for us, and with what craven cowards he is peopling it.

Still, sometimes an eruption of pus is a sign the infection is weakening. Maybe 2020 will be the proper time to administer the penicillin and eliminate it once and for all.

[extvbroadcaster]

23. It's georgia

I left the state and have never been back. That backwoods marry your cousin BS gets old. They are still fighting the civil war.

[Takket]

34. imagine being such a giant piece of shit..........

that you make a big deal of a pregnant woman taking more than 10 items in the express lane.

and... on top of that... you are racist

Drumpf is enabling and inspiring all these people. And people act like his words have no consequences.....................

[Ilsa]

35. Thank God the Publix employee has some training,

Common sense, and great Heart. I wish the employee could call him names as she kicked his racist ass out the airlock. "And don't you EVER come back to this store, futhermocker!"

[4139]

40. Erica Thomas backtracks...

"I don't want to say he said, 'Go back to your country,' or 'Go back to where you came from,'" Thomas said. "But he was making those types of references is what I remember."

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/cobb-county/state-rep-says-man-told-her-to-go-back-where-you-came-from-at-grocery-store/968677735

Hmm😐

[jcmaine72]

41. I sincerely hope she's not making this up.

However, I'm going to continue to give her the benefit of the doubt. There's too much Trump-generated hate in our nation to simply dismiss something like this out of hand entirely.

[4139]

42. The guy did admit he called her a bitch, the guy is a jerk but

She backtracked on the “go back “

She exaggerated

[Flyboy_451]

43. I would call it lying...

While the man may well have acted like an ass, exaggerating, embellishing, or just plain lying about what took place harms us all. Playing the victim card has become a sport for many of the people we want to support, but in the end, it will cause far more damage than it does benefit. It will cause us to eat our own or be torn apart, as a party. If we don’t call out this kind of bullshit when it happens, we will be judged by the actions of the worst among us, and the cost will likely be very high.

[Dr. Strange]

45. Apparently, the guy is from Cuba.

So, yeah, it seems a little weird that he would be telling anyone else to go back where they came from.

[jcmaine72]

46. Not only that, the guy appears to be extrememly anti-Trump.

Why would someone like that quote perhaps Trump's most offensive and racist outbursts to date to an African-American woman? It just doesn't make any sense.

Again, I'm giving Thomas the benefit of the doubt, but this story is starting to look a little fishy.

[Progressive Law]

44. There is a possibility that this story is a hoax.

The accuser has backtracked somewhat saying she didn't hear the "go back" words, but merely "felt it".

And the accused is apparently a Democrat who publicly criticized Trump days before this alleged incident for using the "go back language".

[Chuuku Davis]

47. She lied

And I also get pissed at people with more than 10 items

[Progressive Law]

48. I hope she apologizes if she lied about this.

The longer it drags on, the worse it will be for her IMO.

[Dr. Strange]

49. Oh my Lord, she's Jussie Smollett's biggest fan.

Link to tweet

Going downtown Atlanta for an event I hope I magically bump into @JussieSmollett
#biggestfan

We have to be living in a simulation. Shit's getting too weird.