A Black female university student garnered a lot of negative attention this past week for being caught on camera chastising a White man for wearing dreads. Now the man who filmed the incident is speaking out.
In the viral video, Bonita Tindle is face-to-face with fellow San Francisco State University student Cory Goldstein. He tells her, “You’re saying that I can’t have a hairstyle because of your culture? Why?”
She responds, “Because it’s my culture.”
Tindle then appears to be trying to block Goldstein from leaving, and the two get into a minor physical altercation.
Austin King says he’s the one who shot the argument on his cellphone and that he plans to get the police involved. The SFSU student told KRON news that he was randomly walking in the student center that day when he heard Tindle say that she was going to find someone who had been rude to her.
“My instincts kind of kicked in, and I thought, ‘You know, something might be going on,’” King said.
The cinema major said he had filmed incidents on campus before, but that this particular event has received more attention than anything he’s ever shot.
“I just wanted to create an objective recording of what happened,” he said.
The video has sparked many conversations online about cultural appropriation, with some agreeing that White people should not wear hairstyles that are related to Black culture, while others do not see dreadlocks as a “Black” style. King said he doesn’t agree with Tindle approaching Goldstein about wearing dreads.
“Here we just have someone who because of their race is just being harassed and pulled around,” King said. “It’s just not right.”
Tindle could also be seen in the footage pushing King’s camera away. He says he now plans to press charges against her.
“She had no right to grab me or grab my camera,” he said. “She just so freely put her hands all over Cory, put her hands all over me, tried to take my property, tried to intimidate us into doing what she wanted. That just wasn’t right. We can’t have that happening on a public college campus.”
Goldstein has decided not to press changes against Tindle.
The Associated Students of San Francisco State University released a statement on the video:
Associated Students is aware of the situation that took place on Monday, March 28th, between three students in the Cesar Chavez Student Center. One of the students in the video, Ms. Tindle, is a student assistant employed by Associated Students, and was not acting on behalf of Associated Students in any capacity, when the incident occurred. We are in full cooperation with the investigation being conducted by the University, in order to ensure due process for these students involved.
What do you think of this whole messy situation?
