Erica Thomas, a black Democratic state representative from Georgia, says she was grocery shopping with her nine-year-old daughter when a white man approached her, hurling slurs at her and telling her to “go back where you came from.”
Thomas said that the man was angry that she had too many items in the express lane, but that she chose the faster checkout because she is nine months pregnant and can’t stand for long periods of time.
She described the event in a tearful Facebook video, saying that he called her a “lazy son of a bitch.”
The man’s verbal assault comes just days after President Donald Trump’s attacks on four congresswomen of color catalyzed a chant at his rally where his supporters cried “send her back!” about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a U.S. citizen.
“There’s so much hate in this world and it’s being incited by our president every single day,” Thomas says in the video, sobbing and wiping at her eyes.
The hashtag #IStandwithErica is now trending on Twitter.
