Florida ‘Karen’ calls woman putting on a mask a ‘good little slave’ and argues that it’s fine because she’s Mexican
- Megan Charleton, 30, was putting on a mask to enter a bus in Florida on Thursday when she says a woman called her a ‘good little slave’
- She began filming and the woman repeated she is ‘like all the rest of the slaves’
- The unidentified woman, who had three children with her, then claimed she is Mexican and could refer to to Charleton as a slave
- The incident began over a discussion about when the bus was arriving
- Pasco County has a mandate on wearing masks due to high coronavirus cases
A black woman in Florida was called a ‘good little slave’ by another woman for putting on her mask before she got onto a public bus.
Megan Charleton, 30, was waiting for a bus in Pasco County on Thursday when the unidentified woman criticized her for putting on the mask
The ‘Karen’, who was accompanied by three children, told Charleton she is Mexican and so could refer to her as a slave.
Charleton shared a video of the incident to social media in which the woman can be heard telling her she is ‘like all the rest of the slaves out there’.
An unidentified woman told Megan Charleton, 30, she could refer to her as a slave because she is also Mexican and a woman of color as she waited for the bus in Florida on Thursday
In an Instagram post, Charleton said the other woman was first sitting on the ground behind the bus stop with her three kids and approached her to ask what time the bus comes.
When Charleton told her once an hour, the other woman said she was wrong and called dispatch to ask.
‘She gets off the phone right as my mom calls me. As I’m on the phone and the bus is pulling up, Karen comes up to me an say in a nasty ass tone “I called they said it’s every 30 minutes” so i said “okay, I’ve lived here 20 years it’s always been once an hour but okay” I then hang up the phone with my mom,’ she writes.
‘As the bus pulls to a stop I go to put on my mask because Pasco County has a mask mandate and this woman proceeds to tell me “that’s right be a good little slave”.’
The remark is not caught on video but Charleton said she immediately started recording after she said it.
A video of what happened after the alleged comments shows the other woman standing with a packed stroller and her kids beside her.
‘You just told me be a good little slave,’ Charleton tells her.
The woman hit back: ‘Your wearing your mask live all the rest of the slaves out there.’
‘You’re telling me a woman of color be a good little slave?’ Charleton asks.
Megan Charleton, 30, was waiting for a bus in Pasco County on Thursday when she says that a woman criticized her for wearing a mask by referring to her as a ‘slave’
Charleton said that the woman called her a ‘good little slave’ before she started filming
The woman then starts to argue that she can say it as she is also a woman of color.
‘And I’m a woman of color too. I’m a Mexican woman of color too,’ she says.
‘I don’t believe in skin tone because we’re all humans and there’s no such thing as a different race.’
‘It doesn’t matter you don’t say that. That should be offensive to you what’s wrong with you,’ Charleton answers, adding that she is not setting a ‘good example for your children’.
She posted the video to Instagram and explained the background to the altercation
Charleton said she put on a mask because there is a mandate to do so in Pasco County
The video then shows the bus pulling up and Charleton entering and sitting down through the middle door.
The other woman walks toward the front door but it is not known if she boarded or if she was allowed to without a mask.
‘Regardless of the connotation in which she meant the word slave you do not ever call a black or brown person a slave. Ever,’ Charleton added in her post’
‘She could’ve chosen any other word. But deliberately chose slave’.
Pasco County introduced a mask mandate in late June meaning residents must use ‘face coverings while indoors at a public business or county government facility’.
Coronavirus infections in Florida were up by 1,393 per cent on average in the last seven days.
Health officials reported 11,433 new cases and 93 deaths, according to data on the Florida Department of Health website.
Friday’s data marked the second time the state’s single-day tally topped 11,000.
