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A Black woman delivery driver for Amazon who was shown on video being attacked by a white woman in Texas is planning legal action but is first appealing to anyone who can help identify “the Karen who attacked me.”
Jamaiya Miller was making a delivery earlier this month at an apartment complex in Houston when two unidentified white women approached her, accused her of being a thief and ultimately assaulted her. Miller recorded the interaction in video footage that has since gone viral after being posted to social media.
KHOU reported on the incident:
“She was hitting me with her phone, making all sorts of claims, and she was also literally preventing me from going anywhere,” Miller said.
The woman in the video is heard saying, “We’ve had thieves here and you’re a thief.”
Then you can see her push Miller as Miller is heard telling the woman, “Please don’t touch me.”
“It was the scariest thing because I didn’t know how it was going to end,” Miller said. “It just looked like such a wild scene with me, the black woman, with these two rich white ladies. So honestly, that was the most terrifying part, is the lengths at which they were willing to go physically assaulting me.”
Miller said a doorman eventually came up and de-escalated the situation and she was able to leave and call 911. The Houston Police Department confirmed it’s investigating the incident.
The video footage from the unfortunate encounter was posted to social media via the Red Rose Media Instagram account in a post that dubbed the main perpetrator “Christmas time Karen.”
In the first of two posts, a message attributed to Miller wrote that the “lady spewed racist tropes, like that I was a thief, & hit me several times. She even threw me up against a residents door, and eventually ripped the package I’m attempting to delivery out of my hand, all unprompted. I did not once hit or touch her back. As much as I wanted to, I knew she would weaponize anything I did to her against me. She even yells ‘she’s hitting me!’ in the video as you can literally see her hitting ME. I’m pressing charges on her, and have already filed the police report, so I am hoping to get the apartment security footage.”
Miller told ABC News that race definitely played a factor in the encounter as well as her decision to begin recording.
“Being a Black woman in a rich white neighborhood, mostly white neighborhood, I did think the people would believe those residents – being that they’re older white women,” Miller said.
Now, after being unable to identify the women, Miller asked the public for help in learning their names and suggested she and not the documented aggressors may be getting investigated by law enforcement.
“I have still not identified the Karen who attacked me,” Miller wrote in a subsequent post to Red Rose Media’s Instagram account. “I have been contacted by an investigator who asked lots of questions about my Amazon employment but provided no information about my assault or who the Karen is. I also plan to pursue this civilly and would appreciate any advice/contacts for legal representation.”
A spokesperson for the apartments where the delivery was being made said in a statement that it was “exploring all options” and suggested Miller didn’t follow proper protocol for deliveries because “a resident mistakenly allowed the Amazon delivery driver onto a restricted-access elevator and a resident hallway within the building, where the event took place.”
Miller is far from the first Black delivery driver to be confronted by a racist white person.
In 2020, a FedEx driver released video footage of a white male customer confronting him and his partner while they were making a delivery in Leesburg, Georgia.
After the delivery was made, the white man “ran out his house cursing and threatening us. While we were looking confused we just apologized for being on his yard but he keep going on then kept saying he would whoop our black asses and then he told his wife to call the cops,” the driver claimed in an Instagram post.
Both workers were later reportedly fired, although FedEx denied that claim to NewsOne.
This is America.
SEE ALSO:
Utah ‘Karen’ Arrested After Video Of White Woman Racially Harassing Neighbors Goes Viral
