An African–American family in Springfield, Oregon, is still reeling after they say they were racially targeted “just for being Black and outside” on Easter Sunday.
Rashonda Matthews captured the moment a white woman started shouting racial slurs at her and her family as they stood on their property. Matthews posted the video to Facebook and said the woman shoved her brother while a man who was with her pulled out a knife.
Jessica Hollinger was charged with harassment, disorderly conduct and trespassing after unleashing a racist tirade on a Black family. (Rashonda Matthews / Facebook video screenshot)
Footage from the incident shows the woman getting in Matthews’ face and repeating the N-word several times.
“It’s a sad world we live in y’all,” she wrote. “On Easter with [our] kids out playing we were called the N word. just for being black and outside I guess.”
Police later identified the suspects as Jessica and Kevin Hollinger.
Rahtavian Matthews, another victim, said he was shocked by it all.
“We were all kinda like what the heck?” he told Oregon station KEZI. “Like trying to tell them to stop and soon as I pulled out my phone, [the woman] said she was going to call the cops on me.”
In the video, Jessica Hollinger is seen dialing police as the Matthews’ family repeatedly shouts at her to leave their property. What the video didn’t show is when police said the woman made her way onto the family’s property and “chest-bumped” Matthews’ brother.
The harassment didn’t stop there, however.
At one point, the woman drops her pants in the middle of the street, exposing her bare butt, as Matthews and her family continue demanding that she leave.
“So be it, you’re racist, that’s fine,” Rashonda Matthews said. “Just take it away from us. We don’t want to hear it. “We don’t want to feel it. I don’t want my kids to ever experience it.”
The Oregon mother told KEZI this wasn’t the first time her family has experienced such blatant racism. The 2010 Census shows Springfield’s Black population as 1.1 percent.
We get used to it,” she said. “I hate to say that.”
Jessica Hollinger is now charged with disorderly conduct, harassment and trespassing, the station reported. Meanwhile, her man, Kevin Hollinger, also faces charges of disorderly conduct and felon in possession of a restricted weapon for carrying a knife.
Watch more in the videos below.
