Woman hurls racist slurs during rant at black landscapers in viral video

‘The more we tried to calm her down, the more irate she got’

A video of a woman in Orlando swearing and shouting racist slurs at two black landscapers has gone viral online.

In the video, a woman can be seen aggressively shouting at two black men, who have said they were part of a landscaping crew working at her neighbours house.

Brandon Cordova, who filmed the incident on his cellphone which was later posted online, told The Orlando Sentinel that the crew was finishing their last shift on Thursday when the woman approached them.

In the footage, the woman continually screams profanities and racist slurs at the men.

"She was in my coworkers’ face ... just going off. ... She was trying to say all those hateful things, and they weren’t even being bothered — they were joking around. The more they were joking around, the more she got mad," Mr Cordova said.

The two men identified themselves to the newspaper as twins Antonio and Antoine Harris, who work as a foreman and supervisor with A Cut Above The Rest Landscaping.

The brothers said they remained aware of the risks of novel coronavirus as the woman approached them and made an attempt to step back, which can be seen in the video.

“We tried to calm her down,” Antonio Harris told the newspaper. “The more we tried to calm her down, the more irate she got,” Added his brother.

A man can then be seen intervening and trying to talk the woman down, saying that she is causing a "disturbance". The woman then continues to swear and shout at this man.

The men can be seen walking back to their vehicle and getting into it to leave wishing the woman a "blessed day" and saying "god loves you".

The brothers said that they have not filed a report of the incident to the police despite the neighbour encouraging them to do so.

The crew told The Sentinel that they were "shocked" the video went viral and they didn't want the incident to "inspire more hate".

“I hope that the message isn’t, ‘Look at this crazy lady’ or something to inspire more hate. It’s more to show that there’s people that think this way that are outdated. ... If you just ignore them in the end, what are they going to do to you?” Mr Cordova said.

"This wouldn’t be the first time that we’ve dealt with (racism), this is the most extreme time that we’ve dealt with it," Antonio Harris said.

“We ain’t looking to get nothing out of this, we ain’t trying to blow up on the mainstream,” Mr Harris said.

“We’re just simple guys who go to work every day, doing nine to five, and try to make the best out of it, even with the Covid going on. ... I think we did do the right thing. … We didn’t need anybody to see it.”

Mr Cordova has since set up a gofundme page to raise enough money for the crew to take a day off work following support from those on social media after the video went viral.

The woman has not been identified.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press.