Burnaby woman's video showing stranger's racist rant towards her goes viral
Meanwhile, the stranger woman's son has said that his mother is suffering from schizophrenia.
A video posted by a Burnaby woman named Anika Vassell is going viral. In the clip, a stranger woman can be seen delivering racist rants towards Vassell.
According to the 24-year-old, she had just gotten into her car when the woman tapped on her window and asked her where she was from. When she answered "Vancouver," the woman again asked her the same question, Global News Television network reported.
Vassell said that she told the woman that she was of Jamaican and South African descent. And to this answer, the woman replied saying: "And you're that black?"
"At first I was angry, and I was about to drive away and she kept talking like she wasn't done," Vassell was quoted as saying.
She then decided to record the whole incident and put it up on social media. The video which was uploaded on 6 January has gained 1.1m views till date.
"Because when I see you, I see that you are black and I see that you are not white, so you are not like the rest of us," the woman can be heard saying in the video. "God help us, maybe we will hold a majority."
The woman went on to say that if others "like her" are let free, people will be in "great danger."
In response to the woman, Vassell lets her know that she is leaving and wishes the woman has a nice day.
Vassell told the television network that, "If this is happening to me just based on the colour of my skin, then it can happen to anybody.
"I didn't do anything to this woman but she just saw my appearance and needed to tell me that I don't belong."
Meanwhile, the woman's son Christian Chiribelea has said that his mother is suffering from schizophrenia and her actions in the video are out of character.
Chiribelea also said that he never thought his mother "could say something like that because I've never heard her say something like that before."
"It's hard to get people to take their medication especially when they are really paranoid, so she doesn't take it anymore," he said.
"I felt bad for Anika, the driver". "Someone coming up to you and knocking on your door and saying some racist stuff must have been hard for her."
Chiribelea also added that his mother has been the subject of online abuse and urged others to understand people who live with mental illness.
"She's already paranoid as is... It's really unfortunate."
