A white woman interrupted the happiness of two black bikers celebrating summer in Michigan this week, berating them for cruising around her town before shouting that she “has white privilege.”
Darius Bankhead Sr. and James Grisham, both from Muskegon, took their motorcycles to Grand Haven to enjoy the annual Coast Guard FestivalHowever, the fun is ruined when Karen allegedly harasses them on the road.
In an interview Friday with The Daily Beast, Bankhead said he and his girlfriend were supposed to meet on Thursday to book a spot to watch the fireworks. However, it starts raining, so he and Grisham get on their bikes to get his car. That’s when they noticed a woman driving aggressively behind them.
“She was behind us at the red light,” Bankhead said. “I could see through the peripheral device that her car was really close to us. It kept accelerating and decelerating, as if they were getting us to go.”
He said when he turned around, he noticed the woman flipping them in the 25-mile-per-hour zone.
“We were speeding,” he said. And I did it again. I hastened. Then, after I sped up, it circled us into the no-traffic zone. It circles around us, honking its horn and flipping us over. “
A confused Karen protests the target’s pride by… wearing blackface
They were near the beach, so he said the woman couldn’t get away with all the traffic from the event. Bankhead said he and Grisham broke into a nearby car park to get a photo of the woman’s license plate and to call the police, but the woman followed suit.
“That’s when she got out of her car, that’s when she got into (Gresham’s) face. That’s when she started recording,” Bankhead said.
In the video, which was uploaded Thursday by Bankhead to Facebook, Grisham explains to the woman that he’s from Muskegon.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got the police on the way,” Grisham told the woman.
“Fuck the police,” the woman curses. “No, you guys get up. You guys think you can ride your big bikes.”
The woman argues with Grisham that she was not driving recklessly. Then she returned to her orange jeep, which she had parked in a handicap lot.
“Just remember,” the woman calls out the window before driving off, “white privilege!”
Grisham told The Daily Beast his phone had no service so he couldn’t reach the cops right away. When the woman got out of her car, he said, she was initially recording her.
“And then she started walking towards me, and she was just saying things and she was like, ‘You guys get down here on your big bikes,’” he said.
He explained that once he told her he was from Muskegon and had ties to Grand Haven, the woman began to back away.
“I knew what she meant when she said ‘you guys,’” Grisham said. “Your color… is basically what she was saying.”
Karen by the pool that released elemental bile is recognized as a feng shui advisor
Grisham reported the incident and sent the video to Ottawa Police on Friday.
“I don’t really care how people look at me, but I don’t want to be seen as a bad guy on a motorcycle,” said Grisham.
The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for more information on Friday.
Get the biggest scoops and scandals of the Daily Beast straight to your inbox. Open an account now.
Stay in the know and get unlimited access to our unparalleled Daily Beast Reports. subscribe now.