A Seattle man’s racist tirade was caught on video, and now the whole country can see how little he knows about American history.
Photographer Keoke Silvano captured this unhinged moment in Seattle, of a man screaming obscenities at people of color. Just for the record, that rant contained three n-bombs in 12 seconds. Tarantino would be impressed with that dialogue.
It’s unclear what precipitated this incident, but the man didn’t calm down when fellow citizens tried to intervene. His claim, that the “white man built these streets,” is not just an angry, crazy thing to say, but it’s also straight up wrong. I mean, if he’s talking about the white settlers that landed at Alki Point in 1851 and decided it was theirs, or the 100,000 or so white people that made their way north during the Klondike Gold Rush… fair enough I guess. But, the indigenous Duwamish tribe had kind of been living there for the last 10,000 years. The city itself was named after Chief Seattle, an ancestral leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes, who was known for being open and embracing of the new white visitors.
The ranter was identified as Steven Jay Watts, and he was arrested for harassment and obstruction. In court, the judge apparently expressed concern at Watts’s four prior assault convictions, though he pleaded not guilty and said: “I’m getting harassed everywhere I go in this country.”
Watts is being held on $10,000 bond and he’s due in court again on June 25.
What do you guys think? Would Mr. Watts benefit from a history lesson? Let us know in the comments, or on Twitter at @WhatsTrending.
