White Woman Calls Police on Black Man Standing at His Home

SEATTLE (AP) — A white woman was recorded while calling police to report a Black man who was standing outside his home just south of Seattle in White Center.

The woman, who is not identified, is seen talking on the phone with police dispatch after confronting Dayson Barnes, who is Black, The Seattle Times reported.

“If you guys have a lease, I’d just like to see the lease,” the woman told Barnes and his partner in the video. The video was posted on Reddit on Wednesday by Barnes’ partner and has been circulating on social media.

The recorded interaction is similar to other incidents depicting white women calling police on people of color for mundane activities.

In 2020, a video of a white woman calling the police on a Black bird-watcher in New York’s Central Park went viral, with many viewing the incident as a reflection of the daily racism and life-threatening situations faced by people of color.

Comfort in the familiar

About 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Barnes said a woman he recognized from down the street drove by his house as he was standing in the backyard. Barnes and his partner had moved into the home about three weeks ago, and said other neighbors noticed their U-Haul truck.

Barnes said he and the woman waved to each other, “as a normal neighbor would,” but she came back and parked in front of the house.

Barnes said that when he approached her to ask if she needed something, the woman said she knew who lived in the home and accused him of not being a resident there. The woman told him he shouldn’t be at the property, and called 911, he said.

Barnes then went into the house to retrieve his phone to film the interaction, and to tell his partner about the dispute, he said. Barnes said the woman’s demeanor changed when she saw his partner, who is white.

Saving face

“I’m a Black man, and me being out there alone and for me to go inside to get my white boyfriend, she felt she was in the wrong I guess and that there was a misunderstanding,” Barnes said Friday. “I did get the sense of her trying to save face for herself and brush it under the rug.”

Shortly after, King County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived to respond “to reports of a potential residential burglary,” spokesperson Zoe Birkbeck told the newspaper.

“Dispatch advised responding deputies that the caller said that it was a misunderstanding however now a verbal disturbance had ensued,” Birkbeck said.

In the video, Barnes’ partner can be heard accusing the woman of calling the cops because “she saw a Black man walk in the house.” The woman can be heard responding, “Oh my gosh this has nothing to do with race.”

Barnes, however, said “It was obviously a race thing.”

“I was wearing a hoodie because it’s cold that morning, a black hoodie, and she thought I shouldn’t be there, I was stealing from the house,” he said.

Arriving deputies checked Barnes’ identification and left after about five minutes. No official report was taken, according to Birkbeck.

Barnes and his partner moved to Seattle from Texas, where he said he was frequently racially profiled. White people called the cops on him a number of times when he was walking or running through certain neighborhoods, he said, an experience that always made him fearful of possible police interactions.