A woman in Hackensack, New Jersey filmed her neighbor confronting a Spanish-speaking contractor in a racist rant and telling him to "speak American."
The video began when TikToker @gabstahhh123 stepped out of her home after hearing a commotion outside her house.
She discovered her neighbor "Peggy" was having a confrontation with one of the contractors who had been working in the TikToker's basement.
Seeing as the commotion was taking place just outside her home, @gabstahhh123 asked Peggy if everything was okay.
Peggy cryptically told her:
"I want to talk Raul. I spoke to him already. He knows. Don't get nervous. It has nothing to do with you."
@gabstahhh123 My neighbor went off on one of my contractors and it went like this ☺️ #racist
When the TikToker informed Peggy the yelling outside her house was unnecessary, Peggy insisted the volume of her voice didn't matter because "I'm on the sidewalk!"
Still trying to reason with Peggy, @gabstahhh123 calmly said, "it's fine. What's going on?", to which the angry neighbor warned her not to get involved.
When the TikToker tried to explain Raul was working, Peggy insisted she stay out of it and told her, "It's none of your business. It's their business."
Still unsuccessful at getting to the bottom of things, @gabstahhh123 turned to the construction worker and told him in Spanish to go back inside.
That was when Peggy lost it.
She screamed at the retreating worker to:
"Speak American! You're American! You're here in the United States!"
@gabstahhh123/TikTok
@gabstahhh123/TikTok
@gabstahhh123/TikTok
The TikToker informed Peggy that Spanish was spoken in the country a whole lot more than she thinks. But she was having none of that and told @gabstahhh123, "I don't think so."
"You don't get to speak to me that way, Peggy. Check your tone and go home," said @gabstahhh123.
With the worker out of the picture, the two women exchanged a few more words that further infuriated Peggy and resulted in her walking off and flipping the bird for the camera as @gabstahhh123 hollered after her, "audios, Peggy!"
@gabstahhh123/TikTok
In a follow-up video, @gabstahhh123 explained that she later learned Peggy asked her head contractor, Raul, to work on her house. However, he declined her business.
Not satisfied with being turned down, Peggy showed up at the TikToker's house looking for Raul to talk again about hiring him.
Instead, she wound up harassing the contractor who was seen in the video, standing in the driveway.
@gabstahhh123 also found out Peggy had harassed other random workers earlier in the day.
@gabstahhh123 Pt 2 of Peggy! Just answering some questions I’m seeing a lot of.
She noted that her neighborhood was pretty diverse with a heavy Latino population, and she thought the recent shift in demographics in the area might have been upsetting Peggy.
But regarding Peggy's offensive behavior seen in the video, @gabstahhh123—whose of Peruvian heritage–said, "that sh*t don't fly with me."
@gabstahhh123/TikTok
@gabstahhh123/TikTok
@gabstahhh123 also said her intention in posting the video was to expose Peggy's meltdown to demonstrate it was completely unacceptable.
"I wanted to put this video out there because I think it's important to call people out for this s**tty behavior."
"And I think that the more people see it, the more they feel disgust at it, and are more likely to stop it from happening or maybe change their own behavior."
And when TikTokers who were enraged by Peggy asked why @gabstahhh123 didn't fight her, she responded with:
"Why would I fight her? She's not worth my hands at this point in my life. I'm an adult. I'm not gonna fist-fight with an old lady. That would make me crazy. Don't be crazy."
She also added she didn't call the police because she didn't feel physically threatened.
"I've known Peggy for a long time. She doesn't scare me."
