Taila Rouse, a travel content creator, was recently on a flight returning from her trip to Puerto Rico when she saw the passenger beside her sending some offensive text messages.
In response, Taila decided to record herself confronting the passenger. "I want you to know that I saw your text messages and I think you're disgusting. ... You don't have anything to say to that, right?" Taila said to the passenger in the now-viral TikTok video.
So how did this situation unfold? The passenger in the middle seat beside Taila had his phone in plain view as he texted his family members. Taila initially noticed the words "huge black woman" on the passenger's phone screen, which made her continue reading.
"If you're going to be bold enough to pull your phone out in the middle seat of an airplane and freely talk disrespectfully about Black people, then I'm going to be bold enough to say something to you," Taila wrote in the video's caption.
During the confrontation, you can hear the passenger pretend not to know what Taila was referring to, asking, "What text message?"
"I didn’t expect him to deny any knowledge of the issue, but I was not surprised by his response. I was upset that he would try to gaslight me after I saw him being so bold amongst his family, but we both knew what I saw, and I decided not to let it go. Truly, I was prepared to repeat all of the messages for others around us to hear if he denied further, but chose not to because I didn’t want to make other people feel uncomfortable too," Taila explained.
The passenger eventually apologized to Taila for his actions, to which she replied, "You don't have to be sorry to me; you're sorry because I saw it. But I want you to feel as uncomfortable sitting next to me as I do."
"I may not have made the same choice had we been in a less secure setting, but I felt safer on an airplane. I anticipated that the worst-case scenario would involve one of us being reassigned to another seat once our fellow passengers became aware of his negative sentiments towards the majority of people on the plane. Truly, that didn't seem like the worst outcome either," Taila told BuzzFeed.
Some users commented, shaming the passenger for his response to being called out:
Taila's TikTok video continues to receive varying responses, with many showing support and admiring her bravery for speaking up:
"While the majority of the feedback has been positive and supportive, there is a segment of the online community that has gone above and beyond to express their hate towards me," Taila said.
"This was the first time I found myself in such close proximity to someone expressing such deep-seated animosity. In the past, I haven't always spoken up about these experiences, but this time, I felt compelled to address the situation," Taila told BuzzFeed.
Taila hopes her video inspires others to own their identities and speak up for themselves. "I choose to remain positive. Their words do not alter my purpose or dampen my passion," she said.
