Black US politician says white man told her to ‘go back where you came from’ as she shopped with young daughter

Alleged incident echoes comments made by Donald Trump as he ramps up racist rhetoric

A pregnant African American politician in Georgia said she was verbally attacked in a supermarket on Friday by a middle-aged white man who swore, called her vulgar names and told her to “go back where you came from” as her nine-year-old daughter looked on.

Erica Thomas, a Democrat from Austell, said the man was irate that she was in an express queue with too many items.

Ms Thomas said she was in a queue for customers with 10 items or less because she cannot stand for long periods of time.

“And this white man comes up to me and says, ‘You lazy son of a bitch’,” Ms Thomas said, sobbing as she described the confrontation in a Facebook video. “He says, ‘You lazy son of a bitch, you need to go back where you came from’.”

Ms Thomas said she was stunned by his anger. “I said, ‘Sir, you don’t even know me. I’m not lazy. I’m nine months pregnant’.”

Ms Thomas said she never identified herself to the man as a public official. She said she was so taken aback by his actions that she didn’t think to try to record them.

The incident came days after Donald Trump tweeted that four congresswomen of colour – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley – should go back to the “broken and crime infested” countries they came from.

In Ms Thomas’ video, she alludes to Mr Trump’s racist attacks on Ms Omar.

Ms Thomas never mentions Mr Trump’s name but says: “There’s so much hate in this world and it’s being incited by our president every single day.”

Ms Thomas told The Associated Press that it appeared the man had already paid for his groceries when he approached her.

“He ran up on me and just verbally assaulted me,” she said. At one point, Ms Thomas said, the man told her “you people are ignorant”.

Ms Thomas said a supermarket employee at some point approached the man and told him to leave. She said she believes employees were slow to respond to the assault.

She said the incident happened at a Publix shop in Mableton. A phone and email message requesting comment from Publix in Georgia did not receive an immediate response on Friday evening.

Ms Thomas said she notified police and that she would seek CCTV of the incident.

Associated Press