A black driver who started selling T-shirts on the back of a viral video in which he accused a white woman of using the n-word in a traffic row has defended his right to profit from the incident.
Karlos Dillard blasted his critics Wednesday saying white people ‘profit off of everything black people do in this country’ and it was his ‘prerogative’ if he wanted to sell the t-shirts.
Dillard had filmed himself confronting a white woman, known only as Leah, outside her Seattle home on Monday. She was seen screaming on the ground after he accused her of being a ‘Karen’ for allegedly flipping him off during a road rage incident.
In a piece he filmed to camera before the confrontation, he said the woman had used a racial slur against him. However, Dillard did not bring it up during the confrontation.
During the incident, the woman can be heard saying she did not flip Dillard off in traffic and says she ‘has a black husband’.
Since the video went viral, Dillard has said he has battled against accusations that he has a history of harassing women and had his Twitter account allegedly locked for a Black Lives Matter picture.
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Karlos Dillard blasted his critics Wednesday saying white people ‘profit off of everything black people do in this country’ and it was his ‘prerogative’ if he wanted to sell the t-shirts
Dillard filmed an angry interaction with a ‘Karen’ who claimed she has a ‘black husband’ after he accused her of using the n-word in a traffic row. He is selling ‘I have a black husband’ shirts
Dillard has been sharing updates on his Instagram account as he called out those saying he was ‘profiting from harassment’ for his ‘I have a black husband’ t-shirts on Wednesday.
‘This whole country was built and was profiting off the harassment of indigenous people and off the harassment and enslavement of black people so if I want to ‘profit’ off the experience and make f*****g t shirts, that’s my prerogative,’ he clapped back.
‘Y’all white man profit off of everything black people do in this country. Profiting off cotton, corn, everything, for 402 years but y’all wanna write an article about how I sell $20 tshirts? Ok, Karen.’
Other accusations leveled at Dillard include that he is a Trump supporter, with some on social media claiming that he had deleted pictures showing his support from his Instagram page before the video went viral.
Dillard again denied the claims, posting a picture in which he is wearing a red hat similar to the Trump ‘MAGA’ hats but reading ‘Make America Gay Again’.
‘I had to go 2 years back in my archives to find this for you. Here is your maga hat a** wipe,’ he wrote.
‘Try again trolls. It’s so sad that I even had to go back 2 years to find a receipt.’
Earlier Wednesday, Dillard spoke in more depth about the clash with ‘Leah’, stating that he wished to open up a conversation about why she would react in a hysterical manner to the allegations he made.
He added that he believed change was needed to ensure black people are free from ‘fearing they could be the next one hung on the tree’.
‘The last few days have been very, very stressful and anxious-ridden. I haven’t really slept that well but yesterday I got some therapy. I got some meditation so I feel a little better today,’ he began.
‘I made that public statement to make it very clear, very clear, what happened. I know a lot of things are going crazy on Twitter and in different articles but if you do enough of your research, you can figure out who I am.
‘I’ve been doing this for five years,’ he continued.
‘I’ve been speaking up and using my voice for five years; being brutalized by police, having my mother and sister die, going through hell.
‘We all deserve to live in a community and in a country and a world that is anxiety, stress, and fear free – of just your neighbors. Of course you’re going to have stress of daily life but no one should leave their house fearing.
Karlos Dillard, pictured, hit back at those who said he was profiting from harassment and said that he believed a conversation had to start about the reaction from ‘Karen’
Dillard, who is an actor, author and comedian, started selling t-shirts online with the phrase ‘I have a black husband’ after the video started going viral on Tuesday
‘No one should get followed fearing they could be the next one hung on the tree or be the next body that’s found severed seven miles away at [beach].
‘That’s what the issue at hand is,’ Dillard concluded.
‘The hysterics that were then weaponized to further put me in danger. That’s what we need to be having a conversation about. Let’s have a conversation, there’s positivity that can come out of this for both sides. There’s positivity, there’s knowledge that can be learned, we just have to talk.’
He also addressed claims that he was guilty of previously harassing women after Twitter users posted copies of a restraining order brought against him last year.
Dillard claimed that a neighbor and himself ended up with restraining orders against each other after she made a complaint about his pitbull.
‘We both got a restraining order for each other in 2019/18,’ he said on Instagram.
‘I don’t have to prove this to you, I have receipts’.
Dillard also hit out at Twitter for locking his account Wednesday allegedly over a Black Lives Matter picture (pictured right) and answered those who claimed a neighbor had a restraining order on him (pictured left) by sharing an alleged copy of an order he had against her
Dillard, pictured left and right on his Instagram account, posted the whole video of the exchange online after the run-in Monday and it quickly went viral
He posted what he said was a copy of his restraining order against his neighbor onto his Twitter account.
‘My old neighbor and I BOTH got restraining orders against each other because She called animal control on my pitbull and I called her out on my podcast,’ he wrote.
‘Y’all can continue to try to find fault in me. And you probably will. I’m human. But please have correct receipts’
Earlier on Wednesday, Dillard revealed that his Twitter account had been locked temporarily due to the cover photo on his account which the social media site said violated its rules.
He claimed the picture had been on his account for two years before this and it showed a man holding up a Black Lives Matter sign.
Dillard deleted the picture and his account was unlocked.
He replaced the cover photo with a picture of a protester blowing bubbles in front of a line of police and questioned whether it would also violate the site’s terms and conditions.
Dillard, who states he is an author and public speaker, first began selling the t-shirts after he posted a now viral video on his Instagram claiming that a ‘Karen’ had cut him off, brake-checked him and called him the n-word.
His footage shows the moment he confronted the woman, who he brands ‘Karen’, before she screams: ‘I have a black husband!’, ‘I’m not a Karen!’ and ‘You are totally calling me something that I am not’.
A Seattle woman screamed on the floor while being recorded after she allegedly shouted the N-word during a traffic row. The woman, identified only as ‘Leah’, ended up in hysterics on the floor in front of her garage in Seattle after being confronted by Karlos Dillard, a black man
The video, which lasts for 15 minutes, does not show the woman using any racial slurs
The video, which lasts for 15 minutes, does not show the woman using any racial slurs. The term Karen has become a phrase used to describe an entitled and privileged woman.
The video was viewed 8.9million times on Twitter less than 24 hours after it was posted.
Dillard, who describes himself on his website as ‘more than just a viral video star’ began selling t-shirts online with the phrase ‘I have a black husband’ after the video started going viral.
At one point in the video, the woman apologized for cutting Dillard off in her car but denies flipping him off.
The video doesn’t appear to show Dillard accusing the woman to her face about calling him an n-word.
During the confrontation, Dillard told the woman: ‘You’re not going to be on Instagram, I’m not going to ruin your life.’
At one point when the woman said she wanted to explain the misunderstanding, Dillard said: ‘I don’t want to hear your white tears’.
Twitter users appear to be divided about Dillard’s encounter with the woman and whether she used the n-word.
They point to a video on his Twitter feed from last month in which Dillard claimed an Asian restaurant worker was racist and called him the n-word after asking to his see ID before he picked up a Postmates order that he was supposed to deliver.
During that encounter, Dillard did not accuse the female restaurant worker to her face of using the racial slur.
In a lengthy statement posted on Instagram earlier on Wednesday addressing the controversy surround the latest incident, Dillard said the incident started out as road rage but turned racial.
‘That incident was initiated by the lady’s road rage and her flicking me off and screaming obscenities outside her window and brake checking me,’ he said.
He said it became a race incident when the woman started to follow him in her car and made him fear for life that she was taking down his license plate and car description to give to the ‘Proud Boys or somebody that could harm me’.
‘That is when I decided to stop my car and confront her and ask her why she was following me. We both got out of our cars and that is when the racial slurs occurred. After a few seconds of her berating, I turned around to my vehicle to get my phone and tried to go on Instagram to catch her berating me,’ he said.
Dillard claims the woman fled in her car at that point.
He claimed in a video posted on his Instagram account on Monday that she had cut him off and brake-checked him while driving, before calling him a ‘n*****’. His footage shows the moment he confronts the woman, who he brands ‘Karen’, before she screams, ‘I have a black husband!’
The angry exchange soon attracts the attention of passers-by and the woman insists he is ‘attacking’ her. One person who has gathered also insists that ‘I saw her do it’, before another man approaches Dillard and says, ‘you need to leave’
‘I needed to make sure she wasn’t going to put my safety in danger like she already had by brake checking and following me. To me, this was a road rage incident and I wanted to confront her about how dangerous her driving was and she could have killed me,’ he said.
‘She again made it a racial incident by screaming that she has a black husband and that ‘he is attacking me’ – once again putting my life in danger.’
The video begins with Dillard pulling up behind the woman as she waits to drive into her garage. As she gets out of her car to talk to him, he says: ‘You are not going to sit there and flip me off…’
She then tries to touch him and says, ‘sir’, but he shouts back, ‘don’t touch me’, before repeating, ‘you flipped me off!’
The woman then screams back ‘I have a black husband’ and Dillard replies ‘I don’t care!’ The woman then says ‘you are totally calling me something that I’m not!’
‘You don’t understand what happened,’ she said as she repeatedly raised her hands to cover her face.
Dillard calmly repeats, ‘you flipped me off,’ and then films her licence plate, which prompts the woman to run over and cover it up with her hands, as she screams back, ‘this is not true!’
The angry exchange quickly attracted the attention of passers-by and the woman insisted he was ‘attacking’ her. Defending himself, Dillard insisted he was not attacking her, before adding, ‘She can apologize for calling me a n***** and flipping me off!’
He then explained to people who gathered: ‘She flipped me off three blocks away and then she slammed on her brakes.’
Later in the video, Dillard repeatedly asked ‘why are we here?’ as the woman continued to kneel next to her licence plate with her hands pressed against it.
One person who gathered also insists that ‘I saw her do it’, before another man approaches Dillard and says, ‘you need to leave.’
When Dillard insists that ‘she victimized me’, the man says, ‘I understand that but you are not going to get anything out of it. You just have to walk away.’
He then introduces himself as ‘Tony’ and listens to another woman who claims that the upset female driver ‘started the whole thing’.
Dillard then says, ‘I am going to de-escalate this but I want it to be known that she started this and then I came back around.’
Tony then adds: ‘She is beyond control at this point, you just have to walk away.’
Dillard got in his car and drove away before pulling up on the opposite side of the street.
The woman can still be seen on the floor behind her car as other people try to persuade her to drive into her garage.
Later in the video, although it is not visible, the woman can be heard apologizing to Dillard. Referring to the Black Lives Matter movement, she said: ‘My heart is all about this movement.
‘My heart is breaking right now because you don’t know how much I love humanity,’ she said.
She also apologized for her road rage, saying ‘I am sorry’ but denies that she flipped Dillard off.
When she tries to explain herself again, Dillard said: ‘I don’t want to hear your white tears’.