A new Instagram video showed a Black man in San Francisco being interrogated by a White resident while he attempted to deliver opioid overdose medication to a halfway house located in the affluent, largely White neighborhood.
The clip, filmed by the delivery man who was being targeted, captured both the White resident's knee-jerk suspicion as well as the Black delivery man's exasperated reaction.
The video was posted to the Instagram account @lostsoulcouriercollective, where it was viewed by nearly 200 thousand people.
As his caption outlined, the delivery man was working on behalf the Drug Overdose Prevention & Education Project (DOPE) Project, a San Francisco based outreach program that distributes naloxone to people who use drugs in the area.
On this occasion, the man was delivering naloxone to a halfway house located in San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood, "one of the most affluent, snobby, and White neighborhoods in San Francisco," according to his caption on the post.
As the video showed, the White man approached, asked why he was there and what he was doing. He then proceeded to demand identification.
When the delivery man refused, the White resident—who eventually introduced himself as John—appeared visibly shaken as he held his phone camera up.
The delivery man bluntly told John what he was doing.
"No, you f'ked up because you're an a**hole. This is why people f'king die,"
"Motherf'kers that look like me die because of motherf'kers that look like you."
The over seven minute long video then continued with the two at an impasse.
John claimed to have called the police. The delivery man gladly waited for them to arrive, assured by a new San Francisco law that criminalized racially motivated 911 calls.
In the time the two waited for the police, the delivery man laid into the White resident, calling out his racism.
"Go do something good with your money. Go do something positive, instead of sitting in your castle, recording me, making an a** out of yourself."
"We didn't have to do none of this. I've been here all my f'king life. Thirty years, I've been in this f'king city right here. And every time I come around here, a motherf'ker that looks like you got a problem with a motherf'ker that looks like me. You think that's a coincidence?"
People who saw the clip were appalled, but hardly surprised.
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Thankfully, nothing violent did occur on this occasion.
But, as the delivery man stated, we know how possible that was. Perhaps John will think twice before creating conflict where it doesn't need to exist next time.
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