Lyft driver goes viral for refusing ride for woman over racist remarks
A Lyft driver in Pennsylvania ordered a pair out of his automotive after the woman made racist remarks, expressing shock to see a “white guy” behind the wheel, video reveals.
Driver James Bode posted a video of the alarming trade, which happened Friday outdoors a ingesting gap in Catasauqua referred to as Fossil’s Last Stand, the Morning Call reported.
“Wow, you’re like a white guy,” the woman tells the shocked Bode.
“What’s that?” he says. “Excuse me?”
“You’re like a normal guy, like you speak English,” the woman says, laughingly, as she pats his shoulder and provides, “Sorry.”
“Nah, you can get out of the car,” Bode tells her. “That’s inappropriate, that’s completely inappropriate. If somebody was not white sitting in this seat, what would be the difference?”
“Are you serious?” she asks.
When her male companion steps contained in the automobile, Bode tells him about what she had mentioned and asks the couple to go away.
But the person turns indignant and is heard cursing Bode.
“You’re a f—- asshole,” the person says.
“It’s all on camera, man,” Bode informs them.
“You’re a piece of s—-. I should punch you in the f—- face,” the person continues.
“You’re going to threaten me — assault?” Bode says.
When Bode says the 2 are racist, the person calls him a “f—- n—- lover” and tells him to “get the f—- out of here.”
“No, I’m calling the cops on you, man,” Bode says. “It’s all on camera.”
On his Facebook page, the driver wrote that “the ride was for a ‘Jackie.’ “
“There was a police report filed (only because of the assault threat) not sure if that will do anything…if you make me feel uncomfortable, I will absolutely do the same especially in my car or property,” he added.
“Thank you for showing how to calmly and courageously be anti-racist. I respect and admire you,” one person wrote on his put up.
“Good job James Bode. You were calm and did the right thing. Kudos to you,” one other mentioned.
The Morning Call recognized the woman as bar proprietor Jackie Harford, who reportedly shut down the joint’s web site and Facebook web page, in addition to deleted her personal web page.
Hartford and Bode couldn’t be reached for remark, however the driver thanked his supporters in a subsequent Facebook put up.
“I appreciate it, truly,” he wrote. “But this is the way it should be everywhere, every time. I shouldn’t be ‘the guy’ who did it or said it…we should all be that person.”
He added: “Speak up if you’re uncomfortable with it because it makes them uncomfortable, as they should be. F—- racism.”
Meanwhile, Hartford’s bar — Fossil’s Last Stand — was slammed with one-star rankings on Yelp amid the fallout.
“This business recently received increased public attention resulting in an influx of people posting their views to this page, so we have temporarily disabled the ability to post here as we work to investigate the content,” the location mentioned in a “public attention alert.”
“While racism has no place on Yelp and we unequivocally reject racism or discrimination in any form, all reviews on Yelp must reflect an actual first-hand consumer experience,” it added.
One Yelp person earlier wrote, “Are masks required (at Fossil’s Last Stand) or do customers need to bring their own white hood,” the Morning Call reported.
Catasauqua Police Chief Douglas Kish instructed The Post that the police report was filed about 10:30 p.m. Friday and that the matter is underneath investigation.
Lyft didn’t reply to a request for remark.
