A Black woman in Texas has had to leave her home after facing racial harassment from a white man in her neighborhood.
According to NBCDFW 5, Stacey Livingston resides in a neighborhood in Denton County where one of her white neighbors began shouting racial slurs at her home. “The man was at the door saying: ‘I’ll [expletive] your daughter for a dollar,’” Livingston told NBCDFW 5. “It’s known that he has mental health issues and that he harasses people.” She said she’s not clear what led to these incidents as she and her son had been friendly to the man, with her son even helping him when he had a broken foot.
The outbursts have been ongoing and one of Livingston’s neighbors has managed to capture some of them on their Ring camera. “He’s saying: ‘Got to feed a nigger. Got to feed a nigger. That’s my nigger [expletive].’ And he has food or whatever in his hands and he throws it onto my driveway,” Livingston told NBCDFW 5 of one of the videos.
The neighbor, who chose to remain anonymous for safety, captured another one of the outbursts as well. “He said: ‘I’m going to kill me a nigger and make her into dog food,” the neighbor told NBCDFW 5. “Our kids ride their bikes in the street and play football and catch and I had to tell them this past weekend, ‘Sorry, we can’t go outside because I don’t know what he’s going to do.’”
The harassment hasn’t just been verbal either, as Livingston’s home also has been vandalized. She said that a cable box was ripped up and the phrase “scary nigger” was spray-painted on her driveway along with other insults.
In case you’re wondering, yes, the police have been notified. Multiple times, actually. Care to know what the Denton County Sheriff’s Office told her the last time they showed up?
“One of the sheriffs said, ‘I just suggest ma’am that you stay away from the house for a few days until this blows over,’” Livingston told the news outlet.
Why does a situation have to escalate for white people to finally feel like they should do something about it? There is video evidence of the claims, her neighbors are cosigning that this dude is scary. Why isn’t action being taken?
Harassment typically doesn’t just blow over, and I know for damn sure that if it were a Black man harassing a white woman, that dude would probably be going to jail.
Livingston did stay at a hotel over the past weekend and has hired an attorney to see what her legal avenues are. She told the news outlet that she’s received more support from her neighbors than law enforcement. “I just feel like my life doesn’t matter to them,” she said of law enforcement.
Livingston expressed that she fears for her life and is concerned about what the potential consequences would be if she, as a Black woman, had to take matters into her own hands.
“If I were to have to take matters into my own hands because the cops wouldn’t do anything, what would that look like for me? What would that look like for a Black woman that documented every time, and you don’t do anything, and if he comes back to my house, and trying to hurt me, and I have to take matters into my own hands?” Livingston told NBCDFW 5.
“Would I have the same right?”