Erica Thomas Publix Confrontation

Overview

Erica Thomas Publix Confrontation refers to an incident that occurred at a Publix grocery store in Georgia, where state representative Erica Thomas was confronted by Georgia resident Eric Sparkes in an express checkout lane. While Thomas claims the man told her to "go back where you came from," occurring one week after President Trump's "Go Back" tweet, Sparkes denied the accusations and claims he only confronted her about having too many items in the checkout lane, adding that he is Cuban and a registered Democrat.

Background

On July 19th, 2019, Thomas broadcast herself on Facebook Live, in which she accused a "white man" of approaching her and calling her a "lazy son of a bitch" and telling her to "go back where you came from" (shown below). Within 72 hours, the video accumulated upwards of 145,000 views, 3,200 reactions and 2,700 shares.

The same day, Thomas posted a tweet^[1] about the altercation (shown below). Over the next three days, the tweet gathered upwards of 81,800 likes and 19,800 retweets.

Developments

#IStandWithErica

The following day, the hashtag #IStandWithErica^[3] began trending on Twitter ain discussions about the incident, with many throwing their support behind Thomas.^[2]

Eric Sparkes' Response

Also on July 20th, 2019, Georgia resident Eric Sparkes was interview by the local news station 11Alive, in which he stated that he did not tell Thomas to "go back where you came from," and revealed he is "not white" but a Cuban, votes Democrat and is anti-Trump (shown below). Additionally, Sparkes admits to referring to Thomas as a "lazy bitch."

"Her words stated on Twitter and her video saying she needs to "go back where she came from" are untrue. I am Cuban I am not white."

Search Interest

External References