Dumb news story of the day. Georgia Democrat lawmaker confronted by man she said was racist to her.

Georgia state lawmaker Erica Thomas. The Daily Caller.

Georgia state lawmaker Erica Thomas, who had accused a man of saying that she should "go back to where she came from", was confronted by the man at a news conference. The Daily Caller. The man, Eric Sparkes, steped forward and said he had confronted Thomas at a Publix store but denied saying anything racist. He did admit to calling her a lazy bitch for using the 10 items or less lane with 20 items. Sparkes is a Cuban-American and a life long Democrat and accused Thomas of lying about him to further her career. The two both showed up to be interviewed by local media and were yelling at each other while trying to defend their sides. Thomas later walked back some of her claims saying he may not have used the exact words but did say something to that effect. The story had trended on Twitter and was compared by the left to President Trump's recent comments on Ilhan Omar. 

Today I was verbally assaulted in the grocery store by a white man who told me I was a lazy SOB and to go back to where I came from bc I had to many items in the express lane. My husband wasn’t there to defend me because he is on Active Duty serving the country I came from USA!

— Erica Thomas (@itsericathomas) July 20, 2019

Eric Sparkes absolutely denies claim that he told politician @itsericathomas to “go back where you came from.” He says the argument started over her using the express lane while having too many items. pic.twitter.com/ZikyJc81vf

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 21, 2019

My Comment:
This story blew up over the weekend and I haven't really had the time to investigate it until now. I had been vaguely aware of Thomas' original claims and was immediately skeptical. This story blew up this morning and trended as yet another #HateHoax with comparisons immediately being made to the Jussie Smollett situation. 

After taking a closer look at the situation, I have to say that this is even dumber than the Jussie Smollett case. Nobody here looks good. At least the Jussie Smollett case was a deliberate hoax, this was just two people being stupid.

Eric Sparkes just strikes me as a busybody. Even conceding he didn't tell Erica Thomas to go back home, he still picked a fight with her for no reason. He even left the store and was so angry that he decided to walk back in after leaving and confront a nine month pregnant woman directly. He then called her a bitch, which is very rude. He also claimed he's not white even when he obviously is. Plus it looks like he spends most of his time suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Of course Erica Thomas is no angel here either. It looks like she was lying about what was said to her and even if she wasn't making a minor incident at the grocery store into a national news story. Even if Eric Sparkes is an idiot, nobody deserves the outrage mob that the modern social and news media landscape can generate. And, of course, even if Sparkes had said what he had been accused of it would not have been racist! It's very clear that it was Thomas' behavior that angered Sparkes, not her race, but she just assumed the worst, probably because she is racist herself.

Seeing these two go at it at a news conference is got to be one of the more surreal things I have seen in recent history. I don't think I have ever seen that happen before. If you had told me that some lawmakers called someone racist and then that person would show up at her press conference to deny the accusation I would have called you crazy. But it happened.

What is even more crazy to me is that anyone paid attention to this story in the first place. There is no reason that a guy getting into it with a minor state lawmaker to be treated like actual news. Even if he was racist to her, which he wasn't, it's not a real story. It's just something to get people outraged and it seems to have succeeded.