A 17-year-old girl confronted two unidentified trick-or-treaters who appeared in Blackface and Confederate capes on Halloween night in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania.
Esperanza Menendez, 17, recorded a video of two white males, believed to be juveniles dressed in racist costumes. In the recording, you hear the teen address the two boys smeared in Black.
“Y’all f**ked up ya’ll shouldn’t do that s**t…that’s not funny,” she said.
Several people respond in the background, “It’s not racist.”
(photo credit: Ralf Menendez Facebook)
Menendez was said to be the only person who spoke up and said something to the two boys although she was surrounded by adults according to her father Ralf Menendez. The 17-year-old was reportedly trick-or-treating with her siblings and a friend when she encountered the two males.
“This is my daughter who was the only one surrounded by adults that had the courage to address them,” Ralf wrote on Facebook.
The father of the teen told Lehigh Valley Live, “I have been down that block (on Halloween) and there’s always tons of parents around… Everybody was looking, but nobody was saying anything.”
Esperanza, her two sisters and a friend were shocked to see the boys costumes and wasn’t sure if it was a joke or not “because that kind of stuff is scary… But it still made me feel sick.”
The teen who’s of Hispanic descent added, “I was so enraged when I saw these kids, I never thought I’d see something like that in person honestly. The fact they walked around … dressed like that and they had a bag full of candy and no one said anything, it just makes me so angry.”
Social media commented on the 17-year-old taking a stance against the two boys who she said she didn’t recognize.
“I feel like in today’s day you can’t show fear like that to people who think that stuff is okay,” she told the news outlet. “You need to let them know what’s up or they’re going to keep walking thinking they’re superior and they can just do anything.”
Esperanza who attends Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts in Bethlehem said the boys’ faces did not look familiar.
Pennsylvania State Police at Fogelsville who patrol the township said there have been no reports have been filed concerning the costumes.
Posted by Rafa Taka on Wednesday, October 31, 2018
