A biracial woman stood in front of an angry white man at a protest for George Floyd in Whitefish, Montana.
Samantha Francine refused to move and said she felt no fear while a white man yelled at her on Wednesday.
“No matter who the threat is, no matter what the threat is, you look them in the eye so that they know you’re human,” Francine said her father, who died 16 years ago, told her growing up.
The white man, 51-year-old Jay Snowden, was angry that Black Lives Matter protesters were demonstrating in his town. He chose to yell only an inch away from Francine’s face. She said her lived experience as a 27-year-old informed her response to the man.
“I have gone through so much, experienced so much the last 27 years, and in that moment, everything I’ve gone through made sense,” Francine added.
Videos of the incident show Francine staring down the white man.
“In that moment, I felt those words that my father spoke to me from such a young age, and I saw fear in his eyes, and I knew he wasn’t going to hurt me,” Francine said. “He was just upset and uncomfortable, so I just stood my ground, and it got captured in such a beautiful way.”
Francine said she was not mad with the man and would, in fact, deliver him a gift basket.
