It looks like Karen strikes again. TikToker and avid fisherman @fishingbay2ga is the latest person to be hassled by a neighborhood Karen while doing something perfectly harmless.
@fishingbay2ga I Get harassed when i Go fishing because these privileged people don’t think i live in this nice neighborhood! #racistneighborhood #fishinggonewrong #ijustwanttofish #oldladyharrassingme #iliveinthisneighborhood ♬ original sound – fishingbay2ga
His TikTok account is primarily dedicated to his fishing adventures, but in a video posted Tuesday, @fishingbay2ga documents the unwarranted harassment he faces as he fishes in his neighborhood. The video has amassed 3.6 million views as of this story’s publication.
In the video, which includes text reading “Black man fishing problems!” @fishingbay2ga is approached by a white woman as he fishes. “Are you guys residents here?” the woman asks. “Are we bothering anyone?” the TikToker’s off-screen companion questions in response. The woman then tells them the area is for “residents only.”
After telling them she doesn’t consent to being filmed, the woman tells the duo that she will “check your license plates and forward it on.”
“So y’all hear what I go through, right?” @fishingbay2ga asks his viewers as the woman turns away to her vehicle. “This the third person. … I’m in my own neighborhood, and a white person came and bothered me while I’m fishing.”
As the woman begins to protest being recorded, he adds, “This is my phone. I can film and do whatever I want. I study the law.” Though laws about filming confidential conversations vary from state to state, recording public conversations, such as the one documented in the clip, is almost always legal.
“What’s your name, by the way? Because at the next meeting, I’m definitely going to mention you,” he says as the woman walks away. “Her name is Karen,” his companion adds.
The TikToker received a host of supportive comments on the video, with many viewers offering commiseration stories of their own.
“I remember when I moved in My current neighborhood people would slow down and stare at us coming and going,” one viewer wrote.
“I had to stop nannying in certain areas bc of this,” a second shared. “The parents would harass my bf who would wait outside to pick me up.”
“How can someone be so bothered by a stranger minding their own business???????” another asked.
In a follow-up video posted today, @fishingbay2ga shows a similar situation with another neighbor that seems to have occurred the same day as the initial video. The follow-up has garnered over 61,000 views and more than 4,200 likes in just two hours on the platform. It is unclear whether the interaction in the video took place before or after the one in the initial TikTok.
@fishingbay2ga I Get harassed when i Go fishing because these privileged people don’t think i live in this nice neighborhood! Part 2 #racistneighborhood #fishinggonewrong #ijustwanttofish #oldmanharrassingme #iliveinthisneighborhood ♬ original sound – fishingbay2ga
In the follow-up clip, another neighbor—a white man this time—demands to know where @fishingbay2ga and his companion live.
“I was told not to talk to strangers who don’t introduce themselves,” the TikToker’s companion says.
The man, who claims to be on the neighborhood’s homeowners’ association board, introduces himself and provides his address after the duo prompts him. He asks @fishingbay2ga and his companion where they live again, but they refuse to answer. Realizing he won’t get a response, the man gets back into his car to leave.
The Daily Dot contacted @fishingbay2ga via TikTok comment for further information.
