We all know that feeling when traveling alone -- boarding a flight, train, or bus, and looking for our seat. We’re filled with excitement, of course, but also a little anxiety.
Who will we be sitting next to? Will it be a chatterbox who tries to keep up a conversation throughout the whole flight? Will it be someone completely silent and engrossed in seasons of Friends on their iPad? We never know what we’re going to get!
The one thing that we don’t want is to end up next to someone who will make you feel uncomfortable for the whole flight -- unless of course they land the first blow.
One woman recently vowed to make the man sitting next to her feel equally uncomfortable after she saw him sending racist text messages about her to his family.
What a Woman Did When She Caught a Man Sending Racist Texts
Content creator Taila Rouse was flying from Puerto Rico to Atlanta when she saw the man next to her, in the middle seat, texting his family.
What she saw was completely shocking.
The man, who wasn’t able to sit with his family on the flight, was complaining to them about having to sit next to a “big, black woman.”
He was also allegedly texting other racist and homophobic remarks, discussing airlines raising their prices in order to “weed out” people like Taila on airplanes.
At first, Taila didn’t want to say anything for fear of making everyone on the flight uncomfortable. Then, she decided she had to say something.
If this man was comfortably texting things like this to his family while sitting in the middle seat on an airplane where anyone could see it, who knows what he was comfortable saying in private.
She knew she had to say something.
“I wasn’t going to say anything — but I decided I want you to feel as uncomfortable as I do, and I want you to know that I saw your text messages and I think you’re disgusting.”
The man briefly feigned ignorance but quickly dropped the act. He gave Taila an insincere “sorry,” but she wasn’t done saying her piece -- she declined the apology and told the man he was only sorry he got caught.
How One Woman Proved the Importance of Standing Up for Yourself
Taila’s actions are a lesson in always standing up for yourself. No matter how uncomfortable confronting somebody may feel, it is important to call people out when you see them doing harmful things.
TikTok users were inspired by Taila’s actions, and started praising her in the comments.
“I know your heart was beating saying this and honey, but you stood up through it! Proud beyond proud.”
“The shaking … I can feel you through this video. So proud. So brave. So honorable!”
It can be incredibly hard to call out wrongdoing, but it is so important to set a good example for those around us. If we all stayed quiet in the face of injustice, our society would never progress.
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