A 67-year-old Black Texas pastor posted a video of his confrontation with a white woman at a dog park where she alleges he was scaring her dog.
Not so much, actually, as the woman’s standard poodle twice jumps into TikTok user @j4him.org’s lap.
To be fair, what or who instigated their confrontation at a Mansfield, Texas, park isn’t clear, and the pastor doesn’t give the woman much of a chance to tell her side. She denies telling him to shut up, as Apostle Mitchell Calvin Brown, the name attached to the TikTok account, claims when he starts the video.
“I’m in the park, and this lady is telling me I’m not supposed to be here,” Brown says. “She’s telling me to shut up, a 67-year-old senior citizen.”
The woman, standing just a few feet away, corrects him.
“This isn’t the park. This is the Watercrest Dog Park,” she said, though it’s not clear why she makes the distinction.
The pastor goes on to claim the woman was “threatening me with her words, telling me to shut up, shut up.”
Then, the poodle jumps into his lap, causing the dog’s owner to claim the friendly pooch was actually scared of him.
“This man’s crazy,” she says to the dog, which sets off Brown.
“Now she’s saying I’m crazy,” he said. “She don’t know I’m a pastor.”
The woman responds sarcastically, “If you’re a pastor …”
Brown cuts her off again, and the woman begins to walk away.
“But because I’m Black and I’m in the park with my dog she’s telling me to shut up,” he says. “I want everyone to see her,”
He summarizes their interaction, claiming, “The first thing she says is, ‘Do you live here?’ “
The woman, now visibly angry, turns around and shouts, “That is not what happened!”
Brown talks over her as he wraps up the video.
“What she said is I’m better than you,” he said. “She even told me to shut up.”
The woman continues to protest, but her words can’t be heard.
“That’s all right, this is gonna go viral,” Brown says.
And so it has, with nearly 8,000 likes and more than 1,500 comments by Friday afternoon.
Commenters largely sided with the pastor, with many noting that the woman’s poodle told the true story.
“Poodle: sir, can I come home with you,” wrote one viewer.”Do dogs get in the lap of people that they are afraid of?” noted another.
Some commenters, however, thought the pastor was a bit too combative.
“Aw Pastor, calm down,” a viewer wrote, while another viewer called him a “male Karen.”
It appears both parties could’ve handled themselves a little better.
“She seems calm and he seems crazy,” said one commenter. “Just saying what I see, just a big old greasy chip on both shoulders!”
