Some English speakers get riled up when they hear other languages in the United States, and a recent video going viral is allegedly another example of that sort of racism. Here’s what we know.
Estefani Vizcaya says she left her mother and children in the car while she ran into a Halloween store to pick up a few things. Only a couple minutes into shopping, she received a call from her mom asking her to come outside because something was going down.
When she returned to the parking lot, she says she saw two white women yelling at her mother, and claiming that she had purposely struck their vehicle with her car door.
Estefani’s mother allegedly said that wasn’t what happened and tried to recount the events for her daughter—but she did so in Spanish.
In the TikTok video, a young white woman says: “You cannot speak Spanish in front of me, because I don’t know what you’re saying.” Estefani refers to this young white woman as “Karen” in a follow-up video telling her side of the story. This snippet of the confrontation has tallied more than 200,000 views since the TikTok was posted a day ago.
Said snippet had people clamoring to learn more about what actually happened, prompting the TikToker to share a second video alleging what took place.
According to Estfani, “Karen” actually hit their car first when she tried to get into her own vehicle. Rather than say anything, “Karen” allegedly just got out, wiped something off the door, and jumped back in.
Estfani’s mother tried to get out of the backseat where she was sitting with the children to go talk to the woman, but the other vehicle was in the process of backing out, and she hit it with her door on accident.
“Karen’s mom busts out that car, goes to my mom’s car door, opens my mom’s car passenger door, yells ‘Get the fuck out,’ and closes my mom’s door,” she said. “First off, my kids are in there.”
By the time the TikToker got to the parking lot, she says the other two women were hurling insults at her mother and calling her a “stupid Mexican,” and later acted like she wasn’t speaking English when she actually was. These allegations were not caught on video.
So in an attempt to save her mother from what she felt were their attempts at humiliation, she told her to stop trying to speak to the women in English and wait for the police to arrive.
People in the comments were ready to call this woman in particular out.
“Sounds like a you problem girl,” @yannetteramirez wrote.
“The USA has no official language,” @feariekelly correctly pointed out. “Pressed you can’t understand? Learn another language.”
Another viewer said that she doesn’t know how Estefani managed to stay calm during that: “I choose violence if someone disrespects my mother.”
At the end of it all, Estefani says the police simply told “Karen” and her mother that this “wasn’t an emergency and to leave because nothing happened to her car.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Estefani via TikTok comment and was unable to contact the so-called “Karen.”
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