The Left faked Little Mermaid being played by a Black Actress outrage. Media was using social media accounts with few followers who claim were pissed off. The Christians Against the Little Mermaid Facebook account was recently changed from Mohammed Ali Memorial Facebook account. https://t.co/EEOV9DSQNi— Global Awareness 101 (@Mononoke__Hime) July 20, 2019
Shame, Shame, Shame on you for the constant barrage of lies and hate coming from you and your political party. The majority of America is sick and tired of it.— Global Awareness 101 (@Mononoke__Hime) July 21, 2019
This woman was crying so hard she couldn't breathe because the "white man" told her to go back to where she came from... now it's proven it was a Hispanic Democrat who told her either "stand back" or "step back" https://t.co/v0zv6iDZif— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) July 21, 2019
Media machine has been blowing up story of @itsericathomas, who claims a racist white man told her to “go back where you came from.” Well, he returns during her presser to deny allegation. He says he’s a Democrat & she’s embellishing story for attention. pic.twitter.com/wh4uds2IKC— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 21, 2019
Eric Sparkes absolutely denies claim that he told politician @itsericathomas to “go back where you came from.” He says the argument started over her using the express lane while having too many items. pic.twitter.com/ZikyJc81vf— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 21, 2019
.@itsericathomas appears to be walking back her viral claim a white racist told her to “go back” to where she came from. Reporter @CJenningsWSB asked her about the accusation while in front of the man: https://t.co/4y1OXAd9CA pic.twitter.com/3ShUYj5Byy— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 21, 2019
Incredible. Erica Thomas confronts the “white racist.” He says he’s a Hispanic DEMOCRAT & this was a political stunt.— Jessica Fletcher (@heckyessica) July 20, 2019
This is why people don’t believe the “America is so racist” narrative. She literally tells him he’s wrong about his own nationality. https://t.co/LJ7gfq0iMs
CBS46 Atlanta published on July 20, 2019: Lawmaker confronts man who allegedly told her to "go back where she came from"
Atlanta Journal-Constitution AJC.com Atlanta, Georgia
written by Greg Bluestein Jennifer Brett
Tuesday July 23, 2019
A witness to a heated grocery store encounter between state Rep. Erica Thomas and a man she accused of uttering racist comments told authorities she didn’t hear him make those remarks, according to a Cobb County police report.
A Publix employee told a Cobb County officer that she witnessed part of the conversation and heard (Erica) Thomas “continuously tell Eric Sparkes to ‘Go back where you came from!” but did not hear Sparkes utter those words to Thomas.
In a tearful video, Thomas accused Sparkes of using that phrase, which echoes a tweet by President Donald Trump that sparked a national uproar. Her account quickly went viral and triggered a wave of support and backlash.
Sparkes admitted to calling the Democrat an expletive during the run-in, saying he was upset she was at an express aisle in the grocery store with too many items, but he said he didn’t tell her to “go back” to where she came from.
Thomas’ attorney, Gerald Griggs, said the officer’s report shows the case needs additional investigation because the employee, and another witness who also said he didn’t hear Sparkes use the phrase, “didn’t hear the initial argument.”
Cobb authorities, meanwhile, said Tuesday they don’t intend to file criminal charges in the case after what the police department said was a “thorough” investigation into the confrontation.
Meanwhile, the debate over Thomas’ account has echoed the political divide. Some liberals declared the run-in a heartbreaking side effect of Trump’s rhetoric. And some conservatives cast her as a version of Jussie Smollett, the Chicago actor accused of concocting a racist attack to advance his career.
‘Ignorant’
The report offers new details about a dispute that started Friday evening when Thomas, a vice chairwoman of the House Democratic caucus, posted a Facebook video accusing Sparkes of berating her for flouting the rule of 10 or fewer items rule at a Mableton Publix.
“This white man comes up to me and says, ‘You lazy son of (expletive). You need to go back where you came from,’” she said in the video, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. “Sir, you don’t even know me. I’m not lazy. I’m nine months pregnant.”
The video soon caught the attention of liberal activists who amplified her message that “racism and hate is getting out of control.” Soon, it had tallied millions of views and sparked a media frenzy of competing headlines and hashtags.
A day later, Thomas’ story came under scrutiny when she arrived at the Publix to speak with television reporters — and Sparkes arrived, too, eager to respond. He said he called her a “selfish little (expletive)” when he noticed she was skirting the express lane’s rules.
“I did say that. That’s all I said after that, and I walked out of Publix. Her words stating on Twitter, and her video, stating I told her she needs to go back where she came from are untrue,” said Sparkes, who said he was a Democrat of Cuban descent.
Video
Both Thomas and Sparkes have called on Publix to release a video of the incident, which has not yet been made public. But the officer who reviewed the tape, which did not include audio, described it in the report.
He wrote that Sparkes “did not appear to be irate” during the confrontation and that he quickly retreated from Thomas as she moved his way “pointing her finger at him.”
When she moved toward Sparkes a second time, a Publix staffer waved for him to leave and Thomas turned to her daughter and paid for her items, he wrote. The dispute lasted about 45 seconds.
The Publix employee, a customer service manager, told police that after Sparkes accosted Thomas he began to leave but “Ms. Thomas kept ‘running her mouth’ as she approached him.” Sparkes, she said, responded by repeatedly calling her “ignorant.”
The employee told the officer that she did not hear either of them use profanity.
Another Publix staffer, Derrick Tompkins, told police he heard Sparkes call Thomas an expletive. Tompkins told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he didn’t her him tell her to “go back” to where she came from.
“I’m not going to say that wasn’t said, but I don’t remember hearing it,” he said in an interview. “I’m going to leave it at that.”
Dispute
Thomas held a press conference Monday where she maintained Sparkes used hateful language that echoed Trump’s recent tweets, and said remarks she made to a TV station where she appeared to backtrack were taken out of context.
She and Griggs also said she had witnesses to prove her account, and also urged authorities to investigate Sparkes’ background.
“Rep. Thomas wants the world to know that she’s standing up for the rights of women who have been victimized,” said Griggs, who said he hasn’t seen a Publix videotape of the confrontation yet.
In a statement on Tuesday, Sparkes said he wasn’t surprised that Cobb authorities decided not to file charges and blasted media coverage of the incident.
“Everyone that knows me knows that I am anti-hate, anti-bigot and anti-racism,” he said, adding: “Sadly, too much of media isn’t fact-checking items or they are just taking the word of a politician when they do a live Facebook or a Twitter post.”
— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) July 23, 2019Hi, @jack. Why are you still actively pushing this fake news hoax a day after she admitted the man said nothing of the sort?#HateHoax pic.twitter.com/j4Cq1ipZ8q
She walked the story back.— ForAmerica (@ForAmerica) July 22, 2019
How can @jack fight fake news when Twitter promotes fake news? pic.twitter.com/wrqgNiANBw
61% of adults say that the mainstream media ignores President Trump's accomplishments and Democrats scandals. https://t.co/V9yufMOY2a— Harry Cherry (@TheHarryCherry) July 23, 2019
The Erica Thomas incident is the perfect viral outrage for these stupid times. Two shoppers were rude to each other, and the national media makes it a Referendum on Trump, the Universe, and Everything. https://t.co/E3QNCgT9zY— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) July 22, 2019
Reason.com
written by Robby Soave
Monday July 22, 2019
Prepare to be outraged: A white male shopper at a grocery store in Cobb County, Georgia, told Erica Thomas, a pregnant black woman and state legislator, to go back to where she came from. His verbal assault echoed the racist remarks of President Trump. "People need to see the hate that is going on in this country," a tearful Thomas told her Facebook followers in a heart-wrenching video.
Are you angry yet? Well, you were fooled. The above account was one-sided and misleading, and now even Thomas has suggested that she can't actually recall if the man, Eric Sparkes, literally told her to go back to where she came from, or merely said other unpleasant things. Moreover, Sparkes claims he is a Cuban and an anti-Trump Democrat. This was more than enough new information for some people to file this incident under hate hoaxes and consign Thomas to the status of a Jussie Smollett or Nathan Phillips (whose sins were far greater).
Having read this new information, maybe you're now outraged about having been driven to outrage in the first place. For that you should direct your ire to local media outlet WSB-TV, which hauled Thomas back to the grocery store over the weekend to film a segment about the episode, and also at The New York Times, which for some reason decided that what is ultimately a trivial argument between two stressed-out shoppers should be turned into a national news story. The Times's initial headline, "'Go Back to Where You Came From,' Georgia Lawmaker Says She Was Told," was of course specifically designed to spin this story as an outgrowth of Trump's poisonous rhetoric. The new headline, "'The Hate Is Real': Black Georgia Lawmaker Says She Was Berated at Supermarket," tries to achieve the same, while tacitly conceding that there's uncertainty over the back-to-where-you-came-from language.
Here's the de-sensationalized version of events: Thomas and Sparkes agree that she had opted to use the express checkout option, even though she had more groceries than the line allows. This irked Sparkes, despite the fact that two other lanes were open and available. He snitched on Sparkes to customer service and was informed that company policy forbade the store from doing anything about it, but that Sparkes could take matters into his own hands if he wished. Ultimately, Sparkes approached Thomas, and the two had words. Which words, precisely, is up for debate.
"This woman, Ms. Thomas, is playing the victim," Sparkes told WSB TV, telling his side of the story. "I am a Democrat, I vote Democrat party line. All my statements are anti-Trump, anti-Republican, anti-bigotry."
Sparkes utterly denied that there was anything racially tinged about his comments to Thomas. His strong denial, political affiliation, and the fact that Thomas backtracked slightly are being treated as conclusive evidence by Team Hoax. Of course, it's easy to go too far in this direction. Sparkes admits, for instance, that he called Thomas "lazy"and a "bitch." Maybe his comments weren't racist, but if you're calling a pregnant lady a lazy bitch, you aren't exactly the good guy, and it would be a stretch to label your conduct as non-hateful. Perhaps this is a sign of our incredibly politicized times: an accusation of racism must be rebutted at all costs, while mundane cruelty, seemingly tinged with sexism, is considered above board.
In truth, both Thomas and Sparkes seemed like they behaved obnoxiously. Sparkes should have minded his own business, especially given his admission that Thomas's abuse of the express checkout lane didn't even inconvenience him—there were other lanes. But Thomas quite clearly chose to escalate—and publicize—the incident, injecting it with political urgency and slotting it into a national narrative the media would find too tempting to ignore.
Thus a minor, trivial encounter between two stressed shoppers—a story so old that it is not actually a story—was transformed into a viral social media moment, and then served up to outrage-hungry readers by national news media. I hope everybody is good and mad.
Erica Thomas had a press conference with her lawyers today because she knows she's in trouble for her #HateHoax.— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) July 22, 2019
Erica Thomas wanted to make sure that people didn't think she was "backtracking on her statement"— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) July 22, 2019
...So I made a supercut of her backtracking on her statement multiple times. #HateHoax pic.twitter.com/D7Xq5kN1nO
— JoelPatrick 🇺🇸 (@Joelpatrick1776) July 21, 2019
Party leader told a crowd that woman of color should go back to where she came from, and the racist mob cheered. And then Joe Biden took the stage at the Obama fundraiser. https://t.co/MXBV6I4Ywb— Razor (@hale_razor) July 22, 2019
Daily Caller 5/6/2013: South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian, who said Friday that he intends to help send Indian-American Republican Gov. Nikki Haley “back to wherever the hell she came from,” was a major campaign bundler who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for President Barack Obama, records reveal.
Obama has yet to condemn Harpootlian’s statement, which a Haley spokesman called “the lowest common denominator.”
Harpootlian made his remark at the South Carolina Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner Friday, shortly before a speech by Vice President Joe Biden. Harpootlian introduced 2014 Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Vincent Sheehen with the controversial remark.
“In about 18 months from now, hopefully he’ll have sent Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from,” Harpootlian said as the crowd reportedly broke into cheers and applause.
This woman is a Democrat member of Congress. https://t.co/gDbstXTyJu— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) July 23, 2019
Deport this asshole! https://t.co/pXTah0hTot— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) December 7, 2015
EVERYTHING Illahn says is a lie to further her cultural jihad.— Trump Intelligence Center⭐⭐⭐ (@RealJohhnieDoe) May 8, 2019
There are 50 Muslim majority nations in the world
Only 5/7 nations on the travel ban list are Muslim majority nations
90% of the Muslim majority nations are not impacted by the travel ban
There is no “Muslim ban”
Oh wow now, wait a minute pal... IS THIS ILHAN TELLING SOMEONE TO BE DEPORTED TO WHEREVER THEY CAME FROM?!? I think it is! Very greasy. pic.twitter.com/fPWLU8tAsU— The Typical Liberal (@the_typical_lib) July 24, 2019
Why aren't more people talking about the fact that Erica Thomas actually told HIM to go back!? She admits she told a Cuban man to "go back"... smh pic.twitter.com/DLYRtCChPR— Jon Miller (@MillerStream) July 22, 2019
Erica Thomas is Jussie Smollett 2.0— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 21, 2019
All that she missed out on was the bleach and a couple of Nigerians in MAGA hats. pic.twitter.com/bVdO1uqA0V
I suspect the media will learn as much from the Erica Thomas incident as they did from Jussie Smollett or the Covington kids.— Jessica Fletcher (@heckyessica) July 21, 2019
She intentionally created a stunt by saying he said “go back where you came from.” If he said that, grotesque. If he didn’t, it’s absolutely a political stunt to choose those words for her lie.— Jessica Fletcher (@heckyessica) July 21, 2019
You’ll be stunned to know that when you click on her campaign website now it goes directly to a donation page. Couldn’t have anything to do with us at all, I’m sure.— The Gentleman Masher (@GentlemanMashr) July 21, 2019
@itsericathomas didn’t file a report from 3/18 & 1/19. In that time, her campaign balance went from $13K to $0, w/no explanation. She’s already paid $200, but still has $750 in outstanding ethics fines. Incentive for a manufactured incident to fundraise on? #IStandWithErica pic.twitter.com/C5GnV6md5a— Wits McGee (@wits_mcgee) July 23, 2019
Well, so much for #IStandwithErica.— Sheik Yerbouti (@YerboutiSheik) July 21, 2019
She should pay a price, but she won't, because of #BlackPrivilege.
The #IStandwithEricaThomas crowd right now pic.twitter.com/LWyPUGl3GS— ClemMedia ⏳ (@JonClem310) July 23, 2019
Unbelievable. This is NYT's headline, but then down at the bottom of the piece they quote Thomas acknowledging that the guy didn't tell her to go back anywhere. https://t.co/a6hLMmoOvb pic.twitter.com/BWWvsA8KEH— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) July 21, 2019
@nytimes Where’s the retraction? #EricaThomas Lied ‘Hate Is Real’: Black Georgia Lawmaker Says She Was Berated at Supermarket - The New York Times https://t.co/CWyk0XtsX9— Tom Soroe (@tsoroe) July 24, 2019
— gary (@gporter812) July 21, 2019
UPDATE 7/24/19 at 4:38pm: I added tweets below.Hey Erica,— GatorMike402🇺🇸🐊 (@MichealHill18) July 21, 2019
You sure that this wasn't done by a couple Nigerians wearing MAGA hats? pic.twitter.com/VKx4ykgDLK
The AJC is getting ready to release the surveillance footage. No sound, but the description of the interaction seems to confirm that Erica Thomas was actually the agressor and other details of her account don't hold up. https://t.co/Jm1QU0dncu pic.twitter.com/cniamawtOB— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) July 24, 2019
Here it is -- Erica Thomas is in pink in the Planned Parenthood t-shirt. She follows Sparkes after he comes up to point out that she's in the express line and she follows him and appears to be the one yelling at him.— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) July 24, 2019
Hard to see how her initial account could possibly be right. pic.twitter.com/RAYRVVlEXZ
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