A major outrage began on social media when an abuser, a woman, was identified as Priya Sharma and her Hindu background was slammed for the abuses she hurled in a video going viral. California police launched a hate crime investigation reacting to the viral video where a woman sitting inside the car was calling a black woman ‘ni**er’ over a parking issue. According to reports, the incident took place at the parking lot in the Bay Area over the weekend. The attacker also mentioned the ‘fake a**’ eyelashes of the black woman.
“Due to the nature of the verbal exchange between the involved parties, the incident has been classified as a hate incident and is currently under investigation by the department’s criminal investigation bureau,” the Pinole Police Department said in a statement.
The victim of the verbal abuse broke her silence and told KYVU that the attack was quite unfortunate. “It’s quite unfortunate the verbiage she was using. It’s unacceptable,” she told KTVU under the conditions of anonymity. “I don’t understand why she was using it towards anybody in public at all. She’s obviously not supposed to be using that type of vulgar language.”
The woman who used the racial slurs allegedly has a pending criminal case, charged with repeatedly stealing from a beauty store in Concord, reports said.
Who is the woman in the viral video? What is the outrage?
As many concluded that the abuser looked Indian, one social media post identified her as Priya Sharma and several social media accounts spread the misinformation, slamming Priya Sharma’s Hindu background. “Meet Priya Sharma Hindu who spreads casteism in the country and racism in America,” one post read.
Other social media users debunked the claim and said the woman was not Priya Sharma, but Natasha Chand, a Christian from Fiji — possibly an Indo-Fijian. The identity of the woman has not been officially released.
