#MoveMojito: Miami Resident Who Was Physically Accosted By Racist White Woman While Walking Her Dog Becomes Unintentional Hero

Warning: The videos included in this post are filled with strong language. Viewer discretion is advised.

A Las Vegas pet owner who recently made a move to Miami is being lauded by people of color today for standing her ground against a possible act of racism. While walking her dog, Mojito, on July 3, Rayne Burse was approached by an elderly white woman who seemingly wouldn’t stop questioning Burse’s intentions for being in the area.

“She kept following me, [and] talking crazy,” Burse shared with MIC on Tuesday (the first part of the video can be seen here).

In an effort to scare the angry woman off and to keep her from being followed back home, Burse pulled out her phone to record the woman’s continued diatribe.

“I saw her coming out of the corner of my eye, and let her get a bit closer before very politely saying ‘I’m sorry, Ma’am, am I trespassing? Would you like me to leave?’ To which she responded with something like ‘you know what, let me tell you something, you’re from South Miami.'”

Burse was never directly told what such an association meant, but the aggressive stance of the older woman led her to believe that there was definitely a racial connotation within the old woman’s words.

“I don’t know what ‘you’re part of South Miami’ means,” Burse can be heard saying during the dispute, which she shared online. “I asked you, ‘am I on your property?’ Do you want me to leave?'”

“This is not my property,” the woman retorts.

“Okay, then, so why are you bothering me?” Burse asks. “Am I bothering you?”

“You know what,” the elderly woman shoots back. “I am going to report you. Whoever you are, I am going to report you.”

After expressing that she had no problem with having law enforcement called to the scene, Burse continued to argue with the woman before she was suddenly shoved in an attempt to have her phone confiscated. In a quick retaliative move, Burse fought back.

“You hit me,” the old lady screams, seemingly forgetting that she was the first to strike before literally doing so again just moments later.

“Grab at my camera again, and I’ll hit you again,” Burse responds.

The video cuts off moments later, but a visual recorded afterwards shows the police eventually arriving at the scene and arresting the woman who attacked Burse.

“I’m really not in the business of hitting old women, or disrespecting my elders,” she explained to MIC. “I tried really hard to deescalate the situation before I even decided to record, and she just wasn’t having it. I felt threatened, and I’m not sure if you can hear in the second video [of the woman getting arrested], but I was in the middle of a panic attack.”

Regardless of what was or wasn’t heard, many social users have sided with Burse’s choice to defend herself. A hashtag based off of the command she gave her ready-to-attack dog during the melee — “Move, Mojito!” — began to trend on Twitter following the incident.

When y'all start selling #MOVEMOJITO hats, let me know

— D0N3LL (@TheDJF_) July 5, 2016

Dogs are too pure for this world. He was ready to square tf up for her ? #movemojito

— dani? ? (@zilinad16) July 5, 2016

all racists getting hit wit the #MOVEMOJITO from now on ?

— Nitty Scott (@NittyScottMC) July 5, 2016

Further details surrounding the incident, including the old woman’s name and the actual neighborhood where it took place, have yet to be released to the public. Meanwhile, Burse, who never expected to witness such a positive reaction, has warmly thanked the many people who have reached out to her (and Mojito) through social media.

“The love and support that I’m getting from dealing with that woman is beyond measure right now,” she stated on her personal Tumblr. “I haven’t heard one negative thing about how I handled the situation, and that’s what I feared when I decided to make this video public. I’m really sitting here crying from some of the messages that I’ve received.”

Understandably, there were also a few laughs along with the tears, thanks to the #MoveMojito movement.

“The amount of ‘move, Mojito’ captions that I’ve seen in the captions is killing me, though,” Burse added with several laughing emojis.

[Image via enterlinedesign/Shutterstock]