Going to the grocery store should be a pleasant experience. But for Shaneeka Montgomery-Strickland, her recent trip to Kroger resulted in a viral video and the emergence of “Kroger Karen.”
The Black mother filmed the now-infamous incident on Facebook Live of a white woman blocking her car just because one of Montgomery-Strickland’s kids took an item from the top shelf in the store.
Check it out:
For Montgomery-Strickland, the incident disrupted what should have been a fairly easy trip. After all, she wasn’t shopping for fun.
Rather, she went to the Kroger to pick up items to deliver as part of her job.
And that’s where she encountered Kroger Karen, who can be heard in the video complaining about her child being filmed.
Of course, that would have never happened if she hadn’t decided to plant her child’s stroller behind Montgomery-Strickland’s car.
Says Montgomery-Strickland of the incident…
“I’m out here trying to do my job… and look at this lady, standing behind my car refusing to leave.
I had to call the police to get her to leave. All the stuff going on out here, protesting and everything, and this is what this woman is doing.”
During the encounter, bystanders start to ask questions about what’s going on. Montgomery-Strickland used the incident as a teaching moment for her kids about racism.
She added,
“I hate that the kids had to see that, but now they see, they were like ‘that lady is racist’ and I was like ‘yeah, she is.”
Photo Credit: Facebook
During the nearly-15-minute video, police officers arrive at the scene. One of the officers let Montgomery-Strickland know that she did not commit any crime by filming the incident. In fact, the officer told her she did not need to delete the video at all.
And of course, she didn’t.
Have you ever encountered a similar parking-lot fiasco? How did you handle the incident? Let us know your story in the comments below!
