The ugliness of ignorant racial prejudice and hate in 2016 America is deeply unsettling, yet far too familiar in the age of Trump. White people saying slurs like 'wetback' to American citizens (who have the right to speak any damned language they choose) is exactly the type of climate a hateful Republican nominee has fostered.
The Flores family was forced to record an incident when a racist woman made horrible assumptions. The cell phone video has gone viral after someone from Univision viewed the ranting racist family attacking the Mexican-Americans.
In the video, her assailants accuse her of being a “wetback,” berate her for not speaking English, and accuse her of getting free services and giving Mexicans a bad reputation.
The incident started when Yolanda took her 14-year-old son, Ahmed, and 6-year-old granddaughter Allison to the Health Department. They left Ahmed’s German shepherd in the car with the windows rolled down, which they now regret. While they were inside the building, others noticed the dog in the car and one of the county’s workers called Animal Services. Three women waited at the car in the parking lot, and Ahmed and Allison encountered them when they came out to check on the dog.
“They started yelling at us,” said Ahmed, who got the dog out of the car. “They followed us back to the building.”
When Yolanda came out of the building, the three women surrounded her and followed all of them back to the car, berating her for leaving the dog in the car and telling Ahmed that his dog was going to be taken away. Eventually the verbal assault turned nasty, with racial slurs being hurled at Yolanda, who remained silent.
This was when she started recording the altercation, and said she decided to do so in case the women hit her. Both of the kids were crying and they couldn’t get in the car to leave, because a van blocked the way.
The family is hardly a group of 'lazy illegals.' The grandmother who is speaking Spanish in the video has lived in the U.S. for over twenty years and is enrolled in ESL classes to speak as well as she can type English. The grandfather works as a welder. They are law abiding American citizens.
At one point Yolanda says, in Spanish, that it’s her right to record the incident and the woman snaps her fingers at her, saying, “Speak English, bitch, it’s America. Put that up. Put me on YouTube. Go for it,” she goaded. “Down with Mexicans that don’t learn the language of the world.”
At the end of the video, the woman said, “Goddamn wetbacks,
Wendy Flores (Yolanda's daughter) said she posted the video because she wanted people to know this happened in Grand Junction, and that the women who attacked her mother couldn’t be more wrong.
The family fears retribution for the video now that its circulation is so widespread. They wish no harm on the awful woman and her family that created this disturbance, but want people to know that racism and intolerance is alive and well in this part of Colorado.
Grand Junction is located in a very Republican-dominated part of the state, voting overwhelmingly for McCain and Romney in the last two Presidential elections.
