A man was allegedly ordered out of the Barclays Center after twice attempting to cross the court following Monday’s game between the Brooklyn Nets and Charlotte Hornets. But instead of exiting peacefully, he turned the incident into an embarrassing spectacle of white privilege —throwing an unhinged tantrum before dramatically falling to the stairs, falsely claiming security officials had pushed him down.
Video of the explosive confrontation has since gone viral on social media. It shows a group of security officials surrounding the enraged man, who by now was seated in the bleachers as he stammered for his phone to film the incident he caused, repeatedly yelling, “Don’t touch me!” despite no one touching him. “You kicked me,” the man alleged, grabbing his leg and feigning injury.
Moderators of the story media page that shared the video said that the man became belligerent when a Black security official told him to take a different route to the exits as fans generally cannot just cut across the court to leave the building.
The man shouted with such intensity that the arteries in his neck started bulging.
“Don’t touch me! You assaulted me. Don’t touch me,” the man ranted, pointing his finger while standing up abruptly and getting in the face of a Black security guard about two times his size. “Don’t touch me!” he yelled repeatedly.
“What ensued was a repeated attempt to exercise color politics and white fragility when met with clear and respectful communication from staff,” said one Instagram account, which claimed to be the first to share the footage. The video contained the caption, “On today’s episode of NOT DURING BLACK HISTORY MONTH.”
The comments section was ruthless, with many mocking the man’s meltdown as a prime example of white people’s fragile ego on display when faced with Black authority figures.
“Like a damn toddler,” one person wrote.
“The whiny, fake-hysterics of ‘Don’t touch me’ is right out of 5 year olds in the backseat of the car,” another voice echoed.
“He didn’t even touch the dude,” someone else observed. “SMH, these people always try to catch a case and waste their time.”
