I have an unintentional, accidental, viral video of myself being harassed by a “Karen” (Ms. Petty ☹️)
To make a long story short, I was harassed by my neighbors, numerous times for fishing while black in my own neighborhood. This happened to me so many times that I just start recording it. The link is below.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8R1dAo2/
$GoPro camera: For (Karen’s) & Big fish
$Merchandise 4 awareness black & 🎣
$Jon boat 🛥️ to fish in peace ✌🏿
You can imagine how many times this happened to me before I even decided to turn my camera on. Most people would say I have a calm disposition and if they were in my situation, it would have been much worse.
I am an aspiring actor who loves to fish on his days off in peace. My uncle Mike taught me how to fish to stay out of trouble growing up in the hood. God rest his soul. He actually died while fishing, doing the thing he loved the most. I’m too young to die while fishing but because of the viral video and the multiple neighbors who are trying to stop me from fishing, makes me extremely nervous and I am afraid to go fishing in my own neighborhood due to them and the police being called on me multiple times.
They all have lived in this neighborhood for a long time, so it is a tightknit community stuck in their ways. A boomer mentality within the older white people. I am a young black man who is two years new in this community. After the police have been called and showed up three times I just start packing up my fishing equipment and start to leave because the sanctuary of fishing is no longer nostalgic or peaceful. When I fish, I think about my late uncle and the things I have to accomplish before going to work, until I am harassed by Karen’s and Kens as the Internet would call them. It’s basically a new wave of people feeling entitled to mutual places, such as a lake or a national park. They feel that it is their entitled right to harass an individual because of a color, and then call the police on them although they are not breaking the law.
I want to raise money for a GoPro fishing camera that I can have on my body at all times. This way I can record great fish being caught and also to protect myself. I will have video evidence of how many times I am harassed in one day by my own neighbors, stating that I don’t live there and need to leave before they call the police. I lived in this area for going on two years but apparently we all look alike so they don’t recognize me. I try to fish two times out of the week and even more if I have the time.
Like I said, I am an aspiring actor so I do not have a lot of money at all. I don’t even have enough money to buy a car. I am catching Uber everywhere. One day it was almost $200 since I am catching Uber from Newnan Georgia all the way to Atlanta, Georgia and back. Sometimes I just work for the possible exposure of being discovered because the money I would have gained from working that day, I spend on my Uber trips.
I really don’t like begging or asking people for money. However, that is prideful and before pride comes destruction. I’m not too proud to beg is one of the best lyrics of all time. So I am asking that if you have it in your heart and the means to provide, please fund me.
All the money I earn will go to my GoPro that can record anyone approaching me and harassing me while I’m fishing, a car, so I can possibly drive to different fishing places and hopefully I won’t be harassed in my own neighborhood, and Fishing merchandise. I want to invest in a fishing logo that says something like “caution, black man fishing” I’m not sure if that is what I want it to say but I want it to say something that will let them know that yes I am a black man and I am fishing legally in my own neighborhood so please don’t call the police on me or ask me who I am, my name, where I live, my address, and if I have ID to prove it or some type of mail, stating that I am a resident. You are not the police, so please do not police me.
Sorry so long, but this hits home because it happens to me so many time and with my calm disposition I’m assuming that this happens a lot more to other Black people. A matter of fact I know it does because five others after seeing the video go, viral, and even before the video went viral mentioned how they were being mistreated.
I want to have a meeting with the president of the HOA to somehow fix this privilege harassment issue in my neighborhood and hopefully other neighborhoods in the future. I’m ready to hopefully move on and not have to move out this neighborhood. I just need the funds and the backing to proceed. Thank you so much for reading my story, please follow me on all social media platforms at fishingbay2ga or fishing_bay2ga thank you, I’m tired of giving the police my ID to prove that I live in this resident.
