“You’re taking out your pain and oppression on me right now,” she calmly said as he shouted in her face.

TikTokuser @MidnightMimosa shared a moment of road rage from earlier in the week (July 1, 2022) that played out right in front of her eyes as she tried to make her way to work. What ensued in the next three minutes can only be described as a road rage confrontation that can only happen in Portland, Oregon.

Check out the video for yourself below. Original video is linked here.

The video starts out with a driver, who we later learn is Native American, walking back to his car after presumably confronting the other Jeep driver stopped in front of @MidnightMimosa.

A search on Google Maps reveals this all went down in front of the New Seasons Market on NW Raleigh St. in Portland, OR. (link to the location linked here.)

From what I can piece together from the heated exchange, the driver in the newer Jeep Renegade pulled out in front of the other older Jeep Wrangler even though she had the right of way.

Here’s a screenshot of the location, as you can see, drivers exiting New Seasons Market have a stop sign.

via: https://tinyurl.com/222fspc9

She probably honked at the Renegade driver and, according to the him, she shouted to, “go back to where you came from.”

In a later screenshot we see that both drivers have Oregon plates.

And, this is where the heated exchange begins.

The Renegade driver, who identifies himself as Native American, heard her shout about how he should go back to where he came from and automatically assumed it was a slight against his ethnicity.

“It is NOT about race,” we hear the lady yell back at him. “It’s not about race, and that’s the problem here.”

The Native American doesn’t accept that explanation and doubles down that it is indeed a race issue.

“Yeah it is!” he fires back.

“If you want things to change, do not pull the race card,” she counters

The optics of it, as seen in this screenshot, shows how, despite the facts of the initial traffic incident, it quickly escalated.

A white woman shouting at a Native American who, at this moment, is now backed up against his car? Not a good look.

Not a good screenshot taken out of context.

At this point, the Portland-ness of it all really ratchets up a notch and the woman decides the middle of a heated argument is now the time for a teachable moment.

“You’re taking out your pain and oppression on me right now…” she begins before she’s interrupted by a passerby. “If you want anything to change…”

This, of course, angers the Jeep Renegade driver in further, tripling down on a gigantic misunderstanding.

“S*** up! It’s not on me to change, it’s on you and your colonizer mindset, so get the f*** out of my face, now!” he screams back at her. “You whit* lady, get out of my face because I’m done with this conversation!”

In the background we can hear cars honking for both of them to just clear traffic.

But, oh no, no.

She insists that, “You know there’s work to be done if you would walk away now.”

They go back and forth about how his anger is not about this immediate situation and, despite him telling her to, “Get out (of my face!)” she calmly responds that, “I’m going to stand here with you until you walk away because what you did was wrong, and then you made it about race, and that’s f***ed up…”

The Native American guy, seeing how his appeals to strangers that he’s been unjustly and racially harmed are going unanswered and this is going nowhere, finally decides to leave.

“I’m out,” he says.

“Then go,” she calmy replies. “But I hope you have a conversation about this…and I hope you channel your anger in a productive way because this is not it. How you represent yourself in this moment is not representative of the human being you are.” (OK, lady, you’re spitting facts!)

“I’m OK,” she tells strangers on the sidewalk who ask if she’s alright, “But that’s not the point.”

“I’m sorry,” she tells @MidnightMimosa, who had to watch this all play out before her opening shift.

Conclusion

As with all road rage, it’s best not to get into it or further provoke people into any kind of discussion. Oftentimes, road rage happens when cars are driving at or above the speed limit and that moment is not the time or place to drop facts.

But, in this case, it’s Portland, a city where its drivers are not surprised, at all, that two people are having a moment of road rage with civil (on one side) conversation about accepting blame, how it’s not about race, and how our anger is often not about the situation at hand.

For the initial traffic incident, it’s clear whose at fault as the Native American driver in the Jeep Renegade admits on camera, “…just because I made a simple mistake.”

As for how both handled themselves afterwards, in any other city, I don’t think the other drivers observing this scene play out would’ve been as tolerant.

But, seeing, as mentioned, it’s Portland, I do believe the woman had the right to justify what she said and to reiterate the facts of the initial road incident that led to the argument.

If a similar incident played out without cars say, for example, walking on a sidewalk and, perhaps, he walked out in front of her unexpectedly leading to a confrontation, in that situation, where them stopping doesn’t inconvenience other people, sure, go ahead and have a civil discussion about it.

I think both drivers were selfish for one, stopping traffic (the guy’s fault) and for the woman to spend several minutes lengthening the road rage with impassioned (rightfully so btw) pleas to the facts and the sub-text of it all.

What are your .02? Sound off in the comments below.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here