A shirtless, ponytailed white man taunting a group of Black men strolling along a Cleveland public walkway must have manifested his own reality when he kept repeating, “You’re gonna go viral.”
A clip of him getting knocked out with a single punch has tens of thousands of views.
The video posted to Instagram on Nov. 12 shows the man harassing a group enjoying the Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway on a recent rainy day. When a bystander turned on his phone and began recording the alleged racial harassment, the man’s ramblings about “going viral” kicked into gear.
“You’re gonna go viral for doing nothing, for being a b-tch,” he told a Black man he had been harassing, attempting to bait him into a fight. “You’re going viral for walking next to me and not doing a godd-mn thing.”
His wish was soon fulfilled, but he got one thing wrong. Ultimately, he was the one “not doing a thing” after a swift punch to the face knocked him to the ground. The video showed him violating the Black man’s personal space, getting within inches of his face, looking agitated and primed to fight.
Commenters noted that after the punch, the Black man went on his way, not even breaking stride, as did passersby who had watched the entire scene unfold.
“The best part was that everybody watched him harass the black guy, so once he knocked him tf out, everyone else stepped over and around him,” wrote one viewer on Instagram. “Bravo, people, for not coddling ignorance.”
“I hate unnecessary violence…but this was necessary,” wrote another viewer, clearly fed up with the pervasiveness of everyday racism in the U.S.
While data on street harassment is hard to come by, according to the Pew Research Center, a whopping 75 percent of Black U.S. adults said they’ve experienced racial discrimination, either regularly or from time to time. Perhaps that’s why many found the clip “so satisfying to watch,” and had little sympathy for the harasser, saying he “Messed around and found out.”
As one put it, “Racism is expensive, it will even cost you your dignity.”
