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Nashville comedian said he was accused of car break-ins for being Black

By MARISSA SULEK

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    NASHVILLE (WSMV) — A Nashville comedian said he was accused of breaking into cars at a downtown apartment complex because he is Black.

Joshua Black lives at the complex and said he was called out by a woman who also lives there. He recorded the confrontation on his phone Wednesday night.

Black said he was in his car editing a video when the woman walked up. She asked him one question that led to a viral video.

“Hi, I live here. I’ve been living here for five years and then Karen walked up to me just now and she’s pestering me about what I’m doing following here,” Black said in the video on social media.

While the confrontation took place in a private apartment parking lot, it started before both Black and the woman, who asked to remain anonymous, parked.

“There’s a car in front of me at the gate. They go in and park, and then as soon as I park, a woman walks out full speed racing to my car and she’s like, ‘Do you live here?’”

“When I asked him, ‘Hey, do you live here?’ that smile quickly faded,” the woman said. “He started screaming at me and was like, ‘Who are you Karen?’”

The woman said she was on edge after she said Black tailgated her car to get inside, but her question “Do you live here?” didn’t sit well with Black.

“He gets out of his car, brings out his phone,” she said.

The woman said she associated Black with a previous incident.

“She said you actually fit the description of the guy who broke into my car,” Black said.

In the video, the woman tells Black he matched the description because of what he’s wearing and his backpack. Black said a Black male in a pink hoodie is not the right description and he can attest.

“I know that because they broke into my car and I was pissed because I had to pay for it,” Black said.

The woman said she apologizes in the video for falsely thinking it was him.

“And he got a little too defensive about it, and I admit, obviously, in that video I did too,” she said.

But to Black, this is what he and others deal with daily.

“Unfortunately, that kind of racism is just normal, and we become numb to it as Black people,” Black said.

The apartment complex said the description of the person accused of the break-ins was a white kid on a bike with a red backpack.

The woman in the video said if she could go back, she would not have asked the question “Do you live here?”

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