Terrell Owens, a former NFL receiver, made a livestream of a disturbing video in which a white woman called the police because Owens approached her.
“You are a black man approaching a white woman!”
Although a great deal of context is missing resulting in this short video, this sentence gave a lot of context to the situation Terrell Owens was in during the Instagram Live.
With blue and red police lights flashing in the background, Owens described how he got out of his car to talk to a woman who was yelling at him about his driving.
Owens got out of the car to speak with the woman, and at one point the police were called.
For what exactly? Owens is baffled as he is accused of running a stop sign… that doesn’t exist.
The woman told the police that she told Owens to slow down and then stop his car and get out, to which Owens replied, “Because you’re yelling at me and telling me I almost hit you, and I didn’t!”
The woman said Owens was “harassing” her by approaching her, eventually telling him that since Owens was “a black man approaching a white woman”, his actions were a threat.
Owens calls the woman “Karen,” describing the situation as “unbelievable.”
“I swear to God, I’ve never been a part of nothing like this,” Owens said.
Owens’ full post 11 minute video From the meet on Instagram.
Terrell Owens Live Streams Racist Neighbor Calling The Cops For…Walking?
Although Owens is a wide receiver in the Hall of Fame and has a celebrity career in the NFL, his fame doesn’t change the fact that he is still subject to racism and harassment.
Two months ago, Norman Powell, a shooting guard for the Los Angeles Clippers, had a similar experience while working out in a Las Vegas gym. Fortunately in this case, the white woman who had been verbally harassing him was caught and taken away by the police rather than charging Powell with any crime.
However, Powell was subject to the racism and bigotry that Owens experienced as well, even though Owens had the added threat of calling the police for him.
What makes Owens’ situation even more disturbing is that the woman tried to justify her fear and decision to call the police by the fact that a black man had approached a white woman. This statement is rooted in a deep and violent history of black men being terrorized by the state and white communities for perceived crimes against white women.
Emmett Till was 14 years old when he was kidnapped, tortured, and summarily executed for allegedly whistling a white woman. That was 1955. In March of this year, President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which makes lynching a federal hate crime, into law.
Although the brutal murder and lack of justice seen in Till’s death seem decades away, seeing a white woman criticize a black man for getting close to her is exactly why teenage Till was killed.
Owens walks away unscathed, however, and a white woman whistles to punish Owens for approaching her, a dangerous racial precedent in the United States.
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