A viral video showing a judge’s harsh response to a woman’s courtroom attire and behavior is drawing negative reactions.

The video, posted to TikTok on September 8, shows a clip of a Zoom recording of a court hearing and an interaction between Texas District Court Judge Stephanie Boyd and a woman who appears to be the defendant’s mother.

Viewers can see a woman in a blue shirt and white shorts, carrying a cellular phone and a bag, approach the bench.

“Why are you in this court wearing shorts?” Judge Boyd asks gruffly.

“I’m sorry, I just… I’ve never actually been to court,” the woman states.

The judge asks her to offer her phone to the deputy in court after which asks him to delete the photo the woman took within the courtroom.

“OK, who were you taking pictures of?” – asks the judge.

“Oh, I just wanted to let my daughter know that my son is okay,” the woman says.

“No, who were you taking pictures of?” the judge asks again.

“My son, Rick,” the woman admits.

“Okay, so Lord’s Deputy, if you handcuff her because you want to be next to her son, then put her in the box,” the judge orders.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, I didn’t know,” the woman says.

“I am grateful for the apology,” the judge replies.

First elected to the 187th District Court of Texas in 2019, Judge Boyd is thought online for her honesty and forthright conduct within the criminal proceedings she oversees.

The video her interaction with the woman garnered 17 million views. It is unclear what the aim of the hearing was, but on this case many commentators found Boyd’s responses inappropriate and believed she was reacting harshly to the woman.

“It seemed ridiculously harsh,” one commenter wrote. “The referee was definitely inappropriate,” one other person said.

“There is an expected level of etiquette in court,” another person added. “They also make the announcement before the judge comes out and puts away all the phones.”

A conspiracy theory amplified by Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates Donald Trump and J.D. Vance continues to fuel the fireplace, leading to a racist web post, congressional outrage, and a criminal complaint filed on behalf of Haitian immigrants within the United States.

On Tuesday, the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a grassroots advocacy group working on behalf of Black and Haitian migrants and immigrants, filed criminal complaint against Trump and Vance. For weeks, Republican Party leaders repeated the false claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating their neighbors’ pets.

“It is imperative that we hold them accountable and bring them to justice so that they know that they cannot continue to terrorize an entire community,” said Joseph, who described the plot as “rooted in anti-Black racism and white supremacist ideology.”

The criminal complaint asked Springfield Municipal Court to issue arrest warrants for Trump and Vance for telling a false story about Haitians. It lists several Ohio statutes that the presidential and vice presidential candidates violated, including crimes corresponding to “making false alarms,” ​​”telecommunications harassment” and making “incriminating threats.”

In response to the complaint, U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., made racist remarks post on X, formerly Twitter. The far-right MP called Haitians “gangsters” and described Haiti as “the nastiest country in the Western Hemisphere.”

Higgins also repeated the lie that Haitians “eat pets,” adding: “All these thugs better reconsider and get their asses out of our country before January 20.”

In response to Higgins’ racist post – which he ultimately deleted – US Republican Steven Horsford of Nevada, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, filed a motion within the US House of Representatives to censure the Louisiana congressman. Republicans within the House of Representatives, who hold the bulk, blocked its further development.

“We can only hope and pray that the disinformation and racist rhetoric spewed by former President Donald Trump, Senator J.D. Vance, Rep. Higgins and other right-wing MAGA extremists do not lead to violence in any Haitian or immigrant community,” she said . Horsford in an announcement.

“Every member of Congress must be clear that we must eliminate hate in all its forms. It is time to turn the page on this pattern of vilifying and villainizing immigrants for political purposes.”

“We commend them for standing up for what is right… he must be held accountable,” she said.

Jozef sharply criticized Higgins’ remarks as “despicable” and “vile,” but additionally called out Mark Krikorian, an adviser to Project 2025. At a congressional hearing last week, Krikorian struggled to defend his published article during which he argued that Haiti was “screwed up” because “wasn’t colonized long enough” by the French.

“We understand why they are targeting the Haitian community and we understand that our existence bothers them,” Joseph said. “We understand that they blame us for turning their white supremacist ideology upside down.”

When asked about Congressman Higgins’ position and the following battle within the House of Representatives to censure him, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre criticized GOP leaders for “playing political tricks.”

“The baseless, baseless lies and conspiracy theories… are dangerous and false,” said Jean-Pierre, who’s of Haitian descent. A Biden spokesman said Haitian immigrants in Springfield are “there legally” and “helping the community economically.”

Jean-Pierre, for his part, said President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “want to unite our communities.”

“That’s what you’ve seen over the last three and a half years,” she said. “We want to connect our communities, not tear them apart.”

Lifestyle

A Michigan high school that has been tormented by racist hate speech for the past 4 years is in one other episode after white students allegedly drew Ku Klux Klan and Nazi symbols on minority students’ vehicles.

The most up-to-date incident occurred Sept. 13 at the tip of school at Saline High School, in line with Saline Area Schools Superintendent Stephen Laatsch, who issued a press release to district families the following day saying he was “deeply saddened and outraged” by “incidents related to with hate speech at school. “Racism in any form has no place in our community and we are committed to addressing this issue with the seriousness it deserves,” he said.

Laatsch said the investigation is still ongoing, but administrators “have contacted the victims’ families and have been able to identify students suspected of being involved.”

He said the implications of acts of hate speech, as defined in the scholar handbook, include a “tripartite approach to intervention” that features “discipline, education and restorative practices.” Discipline may include detention, suspension or expulsion.

Acknowledging that “events like these often reverberate throughout our school and broader community,” Laatsch said the district is putting together a team to offer support to students and staff and pointing families to resources, including guides on stopping and responding to bias and tips on how to seek advice from children about racial prejudice.

The Instagram account of Saline High School’s Black Student Union (BSU), formed in 2022 after previous hate speech incidents on the school, posted photos reportedly from the day that included racist slurs, Nazi symbols and references to the KKK dirt on vehicles two minority students, MLive reported.

BSU President Aliyah Carrao, who runs the account, said group members knew the scholars answerable for the situation and added that they were “people that many of the group members called friends, so honestly, we’re all stuck.” But what we do as a bunch when people comment on it is, at the start, educate.”

For several years, black students at Saline High have been burdened with educating their peers and other community members about racism, including for greater than controversial exchange of racist messages on the Snapchat account of a bunch of mixed-race students in January 2020, resulting in the suspension of 4 students.

Students who used racist memes and phrases comparable to “We ni-er,” “WHITE POWER” and “THE SOUTH RISE AGAIN” of their posts later sued the school system, arguing that the chats took place off campus and that they were being violated. the fitting to freedom of speech. The case was settled at the tip of 2020.

Black and Latino students and their parents then attended school board meetings to protest racism and xenophobia in district schools and lobby for diversity, equity and inclusion practices, prompting one parent to ask one other why he “wasn’t in Mexico.” “

In 2021, a bunch of parents of Saline High students sued U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland over a memo he issued to the FBI and U.S. prosecutors regarding threats of violence and intimidation made to teachers, staff and school board members across the country on the time.

In their criticism, the parents argued that it was their constitutional right to get up at school board meetings and criticize the school district for its “harmful, immoral and racist progressive agenda,” as evidenced by the district allowing the school to fly a Black Lives Matter flag and a culturally responsive curriculum , which parents considered “disguised CRT,” was suppressed within the Merrick Memo and other federal policies.

A federal appeals court dismissed the case in December 2023, finding that the parents had not demonstrated any injury and that their right to complain and protest was fully intact.

The N-word was twice scrawled on the wall of a Saline High School boys’ bathroom last fall, prompting the Black Student Union, which now has 28 members, to call for tougher penalties for discriminatory behavior during a November school board meeting.

Earlier this yr, Black and minority students met on multiple occasions with district officials, including Laatsch, to deal with systemic concerns about racism and promote a more welcoming school environment, in line with MLive. At the school board meeting, Corrao advocated for a zero-tolerance policy on hate speech and advised officials that Saline’s “actions – more than words – will have the greatest impact on students.”

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Saline, situated south of Ann Arbor, has a population of 8,948. Its residents are 93.6% white, 1.4% African American, 2.5% Hispanic or Latino, and a couple of.5% Asian.

Although the Saline High football coach declined to comment, Solankowa Post Office reported that several people on the school confirmed that “white football players” who “allegedly wrote the N-word on a black football player’s vehicle … were not on the team during Friday’s game,” during which individuals from the opposing team and a part of the scholar body chanted, “Saline is racist “.

Parent Kandace Jones, a former Saline school board member who has two sons within the district and whose oldest Tenth-grade student is a member of BSU, told MLive that racism against Black and minority students has been occurring for therefore long that it has turn into normalized.

“There are many incidents every year, many of which are not shared, and my son feels desensitized to it,” she said. “It’s incredibly disappointing and heartbreaking to see that it’s so normal for them that they just shrug and say, ‘Yes, that’s what it is.'”

“I feel like the school is taking this process more seriously this time than they did last year,” Corrao said of the district’s response to the most recent racial slurs and symbols. “It’s not something we can give up,” she said. “We want change.”