- The men were arguing at a classic car show in a town near Reno, Nevada
- A black man can be heard confronting a white man over alleged racist insults
- He asks the man where there is a hanging tree and he replies, “In your backyard”
A white man told a black man filming him at a public event in Nevada that there was a “hanging tree” in his backyard.
The guys attended Virginia City’s “Hot August Nights” on August 2, a day-long celebration of classic cars in the city just outside Reno.
The black man, who later uploaded the video to his TikTok account with the caption “unclerickyd1‘ and was identified by local news reports as Rick Johnson, begins in an excited voice that suggests they had already begun to provoke each other.
“Keep talking. And where’s the tree to hang people from? Where is that? Where’s the hanging tree?”
The white man, whose identity has not yet been released, gives him the finger and replies, “In your backyard.”
A white man told a black man filming him at a public event in Nevada that there was a “hanging tree” in his backyard
The black man, who later uploaded the video to his TikTok account under the title ‘unclerickyd1’ and was identified by local news reports as Rick Johnson, begins in an agitated voice suggesting they had already begun provoking each other
He then tries to get Johnson to leave, to which Johnson replies, “Let me leave.”
The white man starts laughing at him and sits down next to another man. He says, ‘I don’t make trash, I burn it.’
A white woman then tries to force Johnson to leave the building by pulling him off the sidewalk.
She tries to be nice to Johnson, shooing him away, saying, “Jesus loves you” and that he’s “my brother.”
Johnson is not interested and replies, “You are touching me all the time, ma’am. This is assault.”
He then gets to talking to another woman, who Johnson says is the white man’s daughter, and explains the whole backstory from his perspective. He says the man and his friend were “conspiring” against him.
“Your dad just said there’s a tree down the street for n****** like me. What does that mean? And I didn’t insult your dad. I asked him nicely, ‘Excuse me sir, are you a registered voter?’ He said, ‘No,’ I said, ‘Thank you,’ then he turned around and said, ‘There’s a tree down the street for n****** like me.’
Johnson begins to cry and asks, “You guys just let all this happen like nobody cares?”
The white man, whose identity has not yet been released, gives him the finger and replies that there is a tree “in your backyard”
He later uploaded the video – which has been viewed more than 100,000 times on TikTok – with the caption: ‘This is what I had to do [through] Today!! I have never felt so humiliated[ed] and not respected in my life.’
Later in the clip, the white man can be heard saying, “I’ll be on the news at five o’clock.”
A spokesperson for Hot August Nights said in a social media post that the registration of “the individuals appearing in the video” had been revoked.
“We want to make it clear that no Hot August Nights representatives, volunteers or staff were present in the video or involved in the situation. The individuals wearing Hot August Nights badges are participants in the event.”
Johnson later posted a reaction video to thank people for their support following the incident.
The identity of the other man has not yet been released and it is unclear if he will face charges in connection with the incident. However, the Stoney County Sheriff’s Office has stated that it is a “concerning incident” and that an investigation is ongoing.
The Nevada Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that it will assist local authorities.