A Cleveland walkway was the perfect example of the universe’s petty sense of humor, if there was ever such a thing! Along the Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway, a white man with a ponytail and no shirt pestered a group of Black men during the afternoon. “You’re gonna go viral” was his slogan as if it were a prophecy. He certainly did go viral, though. Probably not in the way he had in mind!
Civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt shared the now-viral video on November 12, and it amassed more than 31,000 likes as of the time of writing. Merritt shared a public service announcement as the caption, saying, “Dear racist: please leave Black people alone.” For context, Merritt is a civil rights activist with 342k followers, a Forbes Power 100 honoree, and an adjunct at Harvard Law.
The man without a shirt walks around the group in the video like an amateur WWE act. “You’re going viral for doing nothing, for being a [expletive language].,” and then, “You’re going viral for walking next to me and not doing a g—— thing!” Irony must have been taking some notes. Because he received what he had been asking for (a punch to the face, also known as the human “power off” button) just moments after violating every idea of “personal space.” The rest was handed over to gravity!
Watch the video here!
Right away, this alleged racist fell to the sidewalk, limp, and the Black man who had hit him went on his way. In what was probably Cleveland’s most relatable civic performance of the week, people watching stepped right over the man’s unconscious body. As one Instagram commenter put it: “It’s actually everyone WALKING OVER AND AROUND HIM for me.” If the video itself wasn’t blunt enough, the comment section came through: “That was so satisfying to watch [laughing face emoji].”
Another echoed what many noticed: “Everyone watched him harass the Black guy, so once he knocked him [expletive] out, everyone else stepped over and around him. Bravo, people, for not coddling ignorance.” A user brought the ancestral wisdom: “My mama always said don’t write a check your [expletive emoji] can’t cash.” One of the most cutting observations came from one who predicted the post-KO PR spin: “When he woke up, he probably told everyone that a bunch of Black people jumped him.”
Others noted the cinematic punch as they compared the sound of this Cleveland punch case to “a fresh cup of coffee in the morning.” At the same time, another labeled it “One hitter, quitter!” and urged the internet to identify the man. Even Ashley Treasure Theophane, a boxing club founder, weighed in, with “He feared for his life. I saw it. [White] dude was a threat.”
75% of Black adults in the U.S. report racial discrimination on a regular or occasional basis, according to the Pew Research Center. So this clip was a reality for a lot of viewers. It strikes us harder since this offense was so easily avoidable, wasn’t it?
