A Black Northern California father teaching his daughter to drive shared a video of a tense encounter with a white man who told his daughter she didn’t belong in the neighborhood.
On Sept. 15, Marlan Simpson opened up about a heated exchange in which a stranger approached his car and told his daughter she “didn’t belong” in the neighborhood.
He then ordered her to practice driving somewhere else. The incident took place in Fremont, just south of San Jose.
“I jumped out the car so fast in daddy mode because he was at my daughter’s window,” Simpson wrote in his video’s caption.
He explained that they decided to practice on the route where she would take her test, which Simpson repeatedly pointed out was a public street.
His daughter had the car in reverse when the so-called “Ken” approached. “She rolls down the window, and he tells her, ‘Why don’t you go practice driving in your own neighborhood. You don’t belong over here.’”
The video detailed the back-and-forth between the two men, with the unidentified white man calling Simpson a “racist” when Simpson brought up “white privilege.”
“I asked you to do me a favor: practice somewhere else!” the man yelled in Simpson’s face, after which Simpson told him to back up or prepare to get “knocked out.”
In the video, the man denied being racist, saying, “I don’t care what color your a– is.” He also denied saying the family didn’t belong on the street.
Simpson wasn’t buying it and refused to back down, saying, “You don’t get to approach me on a public street and tell me what I should and should not do. Go home! We’re gonna keep practicing.”
The man eventually left, and the father considered the ordeal an important lesson for his teenager. “I had to take advantage of this teachable moment. I made her pull over once we were away from his street and had a conversation with her about the world we live in and why we must stay vigilant!”
Many commenters on Instagram wondered why Simpson didn’t actually “knock him out” like he warned the man. He replied to his viewers in the comments.
“Understand this: that was my first impulse, and then I saw my daughter’s face. Her expression saved me from making a decision I can’t return from. I realized quickly that I have a lot to lose,” he wrote.
“In that moment, the best decision was to divert his attention from my daughter to me. My daughter thanked me for not hitting him. I will take solace in that…But he still needs to be exposed,” Simpson added.
