An Indian-American woman ripped into White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer outside an Apple store this weekend, all while broadcasting the whole thing on Periscope. The woman, who just goes by “Shree” online, wrote in a post on Medium that she was in the store waiting to get her screen fixed when she “looked up to see Sean Spicer.” Seizing upon what she believed to be an “enormous opportunity,” Shree went hard at Spicer outside the store, asking if he’s a criminal and telling him he “works for a fascist.” On Medium, Shree said that she wished she’d come up with “more cogent questions,” but that she just didn’t have time.
Spicer’s response to Shree is characteristically shitty, with the press secretary telling Shree that it’s “such a great country that allows you to be here.” As in, the mall? In America at all, even though she was born in the U.S.? Shree seems to believe Spicer was insulting her brownness, writing on Medium that Spicer’s statements are “racism and an implied threat.” “Think,” Shree writes, “about the sheer audacity of Mr. Spicer to say that to my face with a smile, knowing that he that he is being recorded on video and the position of power he holds in our government. I am still stunned by the boldness of having my citizenship threatened on camera.”
She continues, “It’s one thing to have a Twitter egg tell say [sic] you do not belong in America, it is quite another to have the Press Secretary of the United States of America do so.” It was perhaps good preparation for the Twitter eggs that then showed up on her timeline:
@shreec you have been given a chance to be in US rather back in your home country. perhaps your family is such that has 8 yr olds servants🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/e05rIE59Zq
— Sam Khachatrian (@samkhach19) March 13, 2017
Or this person who has a unique misunderstanding of who Shrek is:
There’s something fitting about it all occurring in an Apple store, too.
UPDATE: At a press conference, Spicer was asked how someone should ask him a question if they see him in public. His response, according to Gizmodo:
“Ask it,” Spicer laughed. “I interact with individuals all day along. Ninety-nine percent of them are pleasant even with people who may not agree with our philosophy or programs or whatever. But it’s a free country and the beauty of it is that people can act how they want, no matter how that’s interpreted. And as long as they step on… stay on the right side of the First Amendment, we’re good.”
You heard the man: stay on the right side of the First Amendment, and you’ll be fine. (Sean Spicer does not understand the First Amendment.)