A video of a passenger being verbally abusive towards a Lyft driver and calling him the N-word after being told to wear a mask is being widely circulated on social media.
The incident took place in Issaquah, Washington, shortly after the Lyft driver, identified as David Kangogo, picked up the passenger, whose first name is Joe. Upon entering the vehicle, Kangogo asked Joe, accompanied by his wife, to wear a face mask but he refused and proceeded to launch a profanity-laced verbal assault at the driver that eventually led to him being banned from the ride-hauling service.
'You're a Sand N*gger'
The driver pulled out his cellphone and started recording before sharing the footage on Twitter. The clip starts off with the passenger calling Kangogo the N-word. "You're a sand n*gger. That's what you are. You're a f*cking sand n*gger," he says after exiting the vehicle, wearing a face mask. "F*ck you!"
"Do you know what a sand n*gger is?" Joe, who appears to be in an inebriated state, asks the driver. "Cause I do." At this point, Joe's wife steps in and urges him stop, adding that she's filming.
'You Will Never Drive Again'
The wife continues filming the driver, noting that she's got his license plate on camera while Joe continues to hurl obscenities in the background. "You will never drive lyft again," she can be heard telling Kangogo, which her husband reiterates to the driver.
"We expected a Lyft ride home," she says.
"Just put on your mask," Kangogo responds.
Joe then threatens to urinate inside the vehicle before backtracking and calling Kangogo the N-word one more time. "Thank you so much. Have a good night," the driver tells his unruly passengers before the video runs out. Watch it below:
Lyft: 'This Behavior is Unacceptable'
Not long after the video went viral on social media, Lyft issued a statement saying that the passenger was permanently banned from the service.
"There is no place for discrimination of any sort in the Lyft community, and this behavior is unacceptable. We have permanently removed the rider from the Lyft community and are in touch with the driver to offer our support," Lyft said in a statement on Twitter.
Kangogo has set up a GoFundMe page in the wake of the racist encounter to raise funds to cover losses suffered due to the coronavirus pandemic. "Turning racist Joe's hate into a blessing," he wrote in the description. "Due to covid lyft requests has gone really down so thank you guys."
