The mayor of the tiny town of Enfield, North Carolina, has started the Black Male Voter Project, demolished Confederate monuments, and opposed white supremacist ideology. But even with all of his accomplishments, he continues to encounter racist taunts while out on the street.
In a now-viral social media video, Mondale Robinson, who appears to be in his 40s, can be seen defending himself against racist accusations. In the video, you can see a white female neighbor confronting him as he was leaving with coffee for his wife.
The woman shouted out after a heated conversation with Robinson, “You are jealous because you’re not white.” To which he immediately responded, “I don’t want to be white.” In a follow-up video, the woman continued to attack the Black community of Enfield, which has 1,864 residents, 85 percent of whom are African-American.
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She even insulted his manhood and told him, “I went to Enfield grade school. I learned all that sh-t just like you did. I can be just as [derogatory] as you can.” “You think you learned this nastiness from Black people?” he asked. “You are the problem.”
Even though Robinson is no stranger to confrontation, this incident was not justifiable. Before returning to North Carolina to organize voters, he worked as a political consultant across the nation after enlisting in the Marines and obtaining an associate’s degree in political science. He spoke to public radio station WUNC that it was in 2022 that he became Enfield’s mayor to stop the white supremacy that had historically plagued the town.
Robinson recalled when, “bulldozed a local Confederate monument in the wake of George Floyd’s murder” as one of his first major actions. He expressed how “white men with guns showed up by the truckload on his street the next day.”
In one of the recent videos posted in late October, he did not hold back from telling the woman, “You’re showing up like a racist right now, you’re showing up like an angry Karen.”
Judging by the Instagram comments, Robinson voiced what many people felt. “Delegation of Black People Statement: We have never wanted to be white respectfully,” wrote one. Another shocked user added, “Do they really think we want to be WT!? I’ve never heard this before! White? Really!”
Public recording and posting of racist encounters have proved time and again that racism is definitely not a thing of the past but a present issue. In recent times, several videos of racist encounters have gained momentum on the internet and sparked outrage and awareness. We can safely say that sharing such encounters on social media has become a form of modern activism.
