Charlotte Protester Goes Viral After Checking Fox News Reporter For Asking Her “Why Are You Here?”

September 22, 2016  |  



There is such thing as a stupid question.

Earlier this week, hundreds of people took to the streets of Charlotte to protest the killing of Keith Lamont Scott, and the scene has been chaotic at times. Officers have been seen firing off tear gas while some protesters responded with rocks.

Scott, 43, was shot by cops on Tuesday, and while authorities claim he had a handgun on him, his family has said he had a book.

A number of news outlets were on the scene during the protests on Wednesday, including Fox News. After someone was shot near the protests, and as media walked around trying to get information about what happened, Fox News reporter Steve Harrigan approached a woman named Allegra Williams. She could be heard saying off camera, “He was shot just like everybody else,” about the person shot near demonstrations. “Black people get shot every day, right? It’s OK for that, right? It’s OK for our brothers and our fathers not to come home, right?”

Harrigan asked the 21-year-old woman why, after hearing that someone had been shot, was she still present trying to protest.

“May I ask you one question: Why are you here?” he inquired. “If a man was shot about 50 yards over there, and we don’t know by who, why are you here?”

Williams responded with a poignant point.

“Because I serve a purpose, sir,” Williams said. “I serve a purpose. I serve a purpose, my father serves a purpose, my brother serves a purpose. I’m here because guess what? Whether I’m here, I’m in school, I’m in my car — you said, OK, a man got shot over here, right? So you’re basically saying why would I put myself in danger, right?”

“Exactly,” Harrigan stated.

“But guess what? I can be at work, at school, in my car — I could still get shot by the police,” she yelled out. “I can get shot anywhere.” Williams went on to point at her skin saying, “Do you see this?” before pointing back at Harrigan’s skin, “Do you see that? Do you see me? Do you see you? We are not the same. We are human. But I am black and you are white. So don’t tell me not to come over here.”

The video of Williams’s impassioned response has since gone viral. She spoke to Buzzfeed about that moment and said that despite believing all news is bias, with Fox News, ” I get a deep, deep sense of prejudice when it comes to a lot of things they broadcast on their news channel.”

But her anger while speaking to Harrigan was not because she was dealing with the likes of Fox News, but rather, because she’s just as sick and tired as the rest of us. She’s weary of hearing about yet another Black man or woman being gunned down by the people who are supposed to protect them. And as she told Harrigan, the idea of asking her why she was there was just disrespectful. “You are using sarcasm,” she told him. “Let me tell you why: You know what events have happened. Black men have been killed. Black women have been killed, sir.”  He knew what had transpired and why it was important to her, and so many other people present that evening, to be out there.

“I was yelling from emotion,” she told the publication. “I was yelling from pain. I was yelling because I was angry. I’m not angry at white people. That’s where a lot of people get it misconstrued.”

Check out her emotional statements below:

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