A middle-aged woman was caught on camera hurling verbal abuse at a minor after she saw him littering by throwing a gum wrapper on the ground.
The 14-year-old boy, Barry Henry, was running some errands with his family after a visit to the church when he decided to throw a silver gum wrapper on the ground.
Little did he know, however, that an angry stranger would not only scold him for it but launch a major racist tirade in an attempt to get him to pick his trash up.
While the boy’s grandmother already scolded Barry and told him to pick up the wrapper, the other woman, who was dubbed ‘Pick It Up Peggy,’ decided to confront him as well.
“Nu-uh don’t even act like that. Pick it up. Find it. Get down on your knees and find it,” she yelled while pointing at the ground. “No count, little n*****. That’s how you are are, all y’all – no count, f***ing n*****. Walk around here acting like some! Film me, f***er, film me.”
In short footage, Barry is seen walking away from the woman without saying a word while his cousin was recording the confrontation.
“I thought she was going to attack us. The lady was telling me, ‘Just pick it up,’ real loud and just yelling and everything, crazy,” the 14-year-old said in an interview with WTSP.
“I never thought that somebody would say that because it’s 2019. Who would say anything like that?” he added, speaking of the woman’s discriminatory words.
Barry’s mum, Tykeshia Henry-Burch, has also spoken out about the incident and admitted feeling “traumatized” by it.
“I was in shock, I was sad, I was mad, I had every emotion there possibly could be,” she told WFLA.
“He told me it hurt him and that he felt, well he said to me, ‘I feel traumatized, mom.’ I was like, I’ve never taught my children to look at the color of anyone’s skin. Ever. We like people for who they are. We’ve never had any issues. It was very traumatizing.”
As the boy’s sister added, she understands that her brother was wrong for throwing the gum wrapper on the ground. However, she insists the action “did not warrant” the angry stranger’s response.
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