A racially charged confrontation caught on camera at a busy Chicago beach has generated outrage on social media.
The now-viral altercation arose at Oak Street beach Monday when a woman started shouting racial slurs at a black Plainfield mom and her children, ages 8 and 4, after she was accidentally splashed with water.
“I told her, ‘These are children, they are sorry,’” Raquel Bolton told NBC Chicago. “She got in my face and dropped the n-word a few times.”
That is when the mother says she pulled out her cellphone to capture the exchange on video. According to the video, a woman is seen allegedly shouting the N-word before berating the mother about the U.S. Constitution.
“Oh, of course you haven’t graduated and you don’t know the Constitution of the United States and what it says,” the woman said.
Bolton’s sister-in-law, Melissa Marshall, says when the woman launched into the unexpected lash-out, she couldn’t believe her eyes.
“I was in shock,” Marshall said. “People argue all the time, but how is that the first thing that comes to your mind?”
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Marshall says she witnessed a similar confrontation in the restroom involving the same woman about 20 minutes later.
Bolton posted the video on Facebook in hopes of sending a message, and was overwhelmed with the response.
“Prejudice and racism is still alive in 2015,” Bolton said, adding she had to comfort her two young children after they heard the woman’s racial slurs. “All white people don’t hate them, so I didn’t want them to think that. They shouldn’t have to experience that at all. I don’t want them to feel less or any different than the next child.”
The family says the experience will not stop them from going back and enjoying a day at the beach.