A Black TikToker and fisherman recently went viral after recording an interaction between himself and a white female resident who questioned whether he was allowed to fish in a pond in the neighborhood he lives in.
The man goes by @fishingbay2ga on TikTok, and he only posts videos of his fishing adventures. The Facebook link posted to his TikTok account says his location is in Columbus, Georgia.
The video is captioned, “Black man fishing problems!”
The video shows a white woman getting out of her car and approaching the fisherman to ask if he was a resident of the neighborhood.
“Are you guys residents here?” the woman asks.
“Are we bothering anyone?” was the response from a female voice off-camera.
The white woman then proceeds to tell him that the pond is reserved for “residents only,”
and she didn’t give him permission to film.
“So y’all hear what I go through, right?” the fisherman says to his camera. “This the third person. … I’m in my own neighborhood, and a white person came and bothered me while I’m fishing.”
He turned the camera to show the woman walking back to her car but responded to her filming comments.
“This is my phone. I can film and do whatever I want. I study the law.” he adds.
The fisherman also posted a second video of a white male approaching him while fishing in the same pond.
Social media users immediately came to the defense of the Black man in both videos.
“Black man live in the neighborhood. Fishing in a public spot. Not 1, or 2 white folks harassing but 3 approach the man. Telling him not to fish What’s new? The s**t predictable,” wrote one user.
Another user wrote on Twitter, “Black man can’t even go fishing..the very definition of sitting there minding his own business.”
“They are so stupid in their bigotry, they dont even care whether he is a resident or not, they just dont want to see a black man fishing, & feel entitled to question him. I hope he gives them all hell at the next town hall/HOA meeting.” wrote @89WarBaby on Twitter.
“Loud & wrong smh. Sorry you have to go through this!!” wrote @the_brooklynn on TikTok.
In general, owners have the right to restrict access to a private pond, but as a resident of the neighborhood @fishingbay2ga would have as much right to fish the pond as his neighbors.
The video received 5.6 million views on TikTok and over 592,000 likes. The fishing enthusiast also posted the second and third videos on his TikTok. Both videos received at least 500,000 views as well. In mid-June, he posted a fourth video of another white male resident that turned on a siren to get the Black fisherman to leave another pond he was fishing at inside the neighborhood.
