A viral TikTok of a woman hurling a racial slur at two Black men in Healdsburg, California has resulted in a city-wide response.
The video showed the woman yelling at the two Black men over their moving truck blocking her driveway. After storming back to her car following her rant, one of the drivers told her that a “simple” ask would have worked.
“I think a simple ‘can you move your truck please’ would have sufficed,” said the man recording the video.
Instead of taking his advice, however, the woman could be heard calling him the n-word. While seemingly unfazed by her racist disrespect, the driver did note that he caught the offense on camera.
“Haha, right. Glad I recorded that,” laughed the man.
Although the woman drove away from the scene, the effect of her racial slur waged on in the Bay Area. City officials in Healdsburg caught wind of the incident as it reached over 2 million views on TikTok.
Healdsburg Mayor Evelyn Mitchell told The Press Democrat that she found the ordeal “appalling.” She also stated that the woman’s behavior goes “against everything” the city stands for.
“As Mayor, and as a longtime member of this community, I know how hard we have worked to build a welcoming and inclusive city,” Mitchell said in the email.
However, the city’s leadership has come under fire for how it handled racial tension before. Following the previous mayor’s lackluster response amid the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, city officials developed the Healdburg’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plan.
The city had implemented DEI-focused strategies to create and improve community equity programming. However, this latest instance of racism has the city reflecting on if change has truly occurred.
Mitchell added, “There is no place for racism or hatred here, and I remain committed to doing my part to help ensure every person in Healdsburg feels safe, respected and valued,” she said.
Since the backlash, the woman has also apologized for using the racial slur. She told KRON4 that she has taken extreme steps to protect her identity amid harassment and death threats. She reportedly dyed her hair purple and removed her social media accounts due to the criticism.
“I’m sorry for what I said. I’m sorry I wanted to hurt (the movers), but it’s not because I’m a horrible person, it’s because I have been struggling recently,” she explained.
The truck driver, however, told the news outlet that he has dealt with racism on this scale before while on the job. Healdsburg’s local NAACP branch, overseeing all of Santa Rosa-Sonoma County, has yet to release a statement.
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