Imagine sitting at a bus stop, minding your own business, when a stranger begins attacking your ancestral homeland.
Most people would respond with a straightforward “f*** you!” Some might try to ignore him.
But TikTok user @selam_lethiopia, faced with a passive-aggressive man on a British bus, decided on a different approach, responding with a warm smile and droll sarcasm that eventually flummoxed the condescending stranger.
“You might be one of the little babies that I gave water to,” the man tells her, noting her Ethiopian roots.
“I wasn’t around in the 80s,” she replies. The man, who says he was dispatched to Ethiopia as a solider, tells her, “Ethiopia was a sh-t place to be then.”
He follows that up with a joke he acknowledges is “very derogatory,” something about the only thing faster than a chicken is an Ethiopian chasing a chicken.
(Nothing like a little famine humor.)
@selam_lethiopia replies, “Oh, ’cause they’re really fast in the Olympics. They always beat Team GB (Great Britain).”
“Yeah, they’re professional athletes,” she adds.
Perhaps realizing he’s dug himself into a hole, the man responds with a compliment. “Look at you, you’re a star for your country,” he said.
“It’s all thanks to your help, isn’t it,” she replies. She tells him she hopes to go back there for a visit one day.
“To a country that’s been managed properly,” he injects.
“By slavery,” she responds. “Through slavery and colonialism.”
By this point, the man knows he’s been outsmarted. “No, we don’t do slavery,” he says as he scurries off the bus.
“These are the convos if you didn’t record no one would believe you,” remarked one follower.
Others commended @selam_lethiopia for maintaining her cool against the odds.
“Handled like a pro. He didn’t even clock the sarcasm,” said another TikToker. “He was waiting for a reaction… your replies were spot on. I bet he was so angry inside.”
The post has been shared more than 36,000 times and has attracted more than 228,000 likes. It was viewed more than 2 million times.
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