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Woman launches racist rant at Black DJ who filmed her berating restaurant staff: ‘Do some African-American fishing’

‘Hi, one of four Black men in Santa Barbara... Don’t you have some fish to catch, African-American man?’

Maroosha Muzaffar
Monday 23 May 2022 08:29 BST
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Woman launches racist rant at man who filmed her berating restaurant staff

A video of a California woman who flew into a rage and started berating a Black man with racist remarks has gone viral.

The unidentified woman can be seen having an argument with the staff of the Boathouse restaurant at Hendry’s Beach, Santa Barbara, over an unpaid bill.

The woman can also be seen beginning to argue with Ian Soleimani, a Black man who works as a DJ, who had started filming the exchange after it became more heated.

The four-minute video was posted by Mr Soleimani on his Instagram page on 12 May, after which it went viral, collecting 20,000 views and more than 450 comments.

The argument between the wait staff and the woman can be seen escalating as she begins to abuse Mr Soleimani with racist rants.

“What are you doing?” the woman can be heard asking the man in the video, to which he responds by saying “taking a video of this.”

“Are you sending it to the FBI after this? I might go psychotic pretty soon, I’m probably going to — I’m probably going to get very violent pretty soon, I’m glad you’re here," she then said.

“Cool, keep going,” the man can be heard saying in the video.

“Don’t you have some fish to catch, African-American man? Don’t you want to go on the boat and do some African-American fishing?” the woman can be heard asking Mr Soleimani, who she also dubs “Mother Teresa for Santa Barbara”.

“Hi, one of four Black men in Santa Barbara,” the woman continues saying in the video. “Oh, now I’m a racist, terrible person. Oh, sorry, just because you’re an obnoxious guy. It’s not your fault that you’re Black, of course.”

Mr Soleimani, speaking to The Daily Dot, said: “People have been kicked out of boathouse a few times for [racially] motivated comments towards myself, unfortunately,”

“After experiencing stuff like that on and off for as long as that restaurant has been open, just doesn’t surprise me. Just learned how to deal with it better,” he added.

“Lived here since 2003 and this happens all the time. This person just got caught. People think this doesn’t exist let alone here and it certainly does.”

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