White man filmed harassing black passenger by pretending to be a monkey

A shocking video shot on the London Underground shows a white man harassing a black passenger by making monkey noises and swinging from the subway poles.

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The incident happened to Mohammed Dirir, CEO of tech start-up PalQeis, near the Tube’s Kennington station on Friday, according to the Evening Standard. In a clip recorded by Dirir, the suspect is seen brazenly climbing on seats and acting like a monkey while Dirir first appears oblivious that the mocking is directed toward him. The man taunting Dirir is surrounded by five friends who do nothing to stop the attack — though some fellow passengers do come to Dirir’s defense.

Dirir told the Evening Standard that it wasn’t until he made eye contact with the passenger and saw him give a thumbs-up sign that he realized he was the target of a racist attack. Dirir can be heard egging the man on so he can capture the abuse on video, saying, “Do that move again. Do that move. Monkey, pretending to be a monkey,” and “Do it for the ‘gram.”

“I asked him ‘are you good, mate?’ and as you can clearly see in the video he said to his friend ‘Oh, he’s dumb, he didn’t get it,'” Dirir told the British publication. “As you can see in the video, [he was] really racist.”

At the end of the video, the perpetrator aggressively jumps toward the camera, which he appears to know is filming him.

Dirir later posted the video to Instagram, writing, “Racism is still alive, to all my people of color around the world stay strong! Let’s end this epidemic once & for all!”

The British Transport Police (BTP) has intervened. Siwan Hayward, director of policing, shared a statement with Yahoo Lifestyle that reads, “British Transport Police are aware of a video on social media showing an incident of racial abuse on the Northern Line. We do not tolerate any acts of racist behavior on our network and take all reports like this extremely seriously. We urge anyone who witnessed this shocking and appalling incident to contact the BTP and make an official report.”

The man’s identity is not known, but the BTP hopes anyone who recognizes him will come forward and help them track him down.

“Disgusting behavior,” wrote one commenter on Instagram.

“Please try to ignore these kind of negative people. They are absolutely primitive. Such a shame. I believe in karma, he will get back everything later somehow,” wrote another. A third called the incident “psychological warfare.”

For Dirir, retaliation was never an option. “That would be responding to hate with hate, (adding) fuel to the fire,” he told the Evening Standard. “I was raised to show love rather than hate. I had to set an example. I had to show class.

“We need to stop the hatred around the world,” he added. “It’s nonsense, we’re all the same, we’re one color, one love, there’s no difference when it comes to colors. But ignorant people like that need to be guided and I pray to God that he guides them.”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

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• Ole Miss student council votes unanimously to move statue of Confederate soldier off campus

• ‘Whites have rights’: Outrage over billboard attacking Jussie Smollett and Rep. John Lewis

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