UFC fighter and IBJJF World Champion Mackenzie Dern recorded a video with her husband, Wesley Santos, recounting a concerning incident with a stranger and taking the opportunity to spread an important message: “Racism still exists.”
In the video, Dern and Santos say that during a trip to the beach, Santos was tending to the couple’s daughter, Moa, while Dern was close by taking photos. Moa was crying, and a woman on the pier began to ask Santos a few questions, apparently checking in to make sure the baby was ok. At first, Santos didn’t think anything of the woman’s questions, but then, she came down from the pier and intensified her interrogation: Where was he from? How was Moa related to him?
Eventually, the woman spoke to Dern, who confirmed what her partner had already told the woman: that Moa was indeed their baby. The woman then said something that alarmed the couple — she’d called the police after determining that Santos “didn’t speak good English” and she “thought it was weird.”
Dern says she doesn’t know why the woman felt it was necessary to call the police, but she speculated that it could be because she was concerned about seeing “a black man with a white baby.” Dern acknowledged that the woman probably thought she was acting in Moa’s best interests, but that ultimately, worrying about a baby’s welfare just because she and her father didn’t share the same skin tone was racist.
Watch Dern’s entire video below:
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