A black woman who donned a face mask before boarding a bus in Florida was shocked when another woman called her a "good little slave".
Megan Charleton, 30, was waiting for a bus in Pasco County on Thursday (local time) when the unidentified woman made the alleged remark.
The woman then claimed that as she was Mexican and also a "woman of colour", she was able to refer to Charleton as a slave.
The mother-of-two shared her experience in an Instagram post, accompanied by video footage taken immediately after the woman insulted her.
In the post, Charleton says the woman, who was with three children, approached her and asked what time the bus was due.
When Charleton replied that the bus comes once an hour, the woman argued it was every thirty minutes.
"#Karen then proceeded to call dispatch to ask... while she's on the phone [she] says, 'this little girl said it comes once an hour'," Charleton wrote.
"She gets off the phone right as my mom calls me. As I'm on the phone and the bus is pulling up, #Karen comes up to me and says in a nasty ass tone, 'I called, they said it's every 30 minutes'. So I said, 'okay, I've lived here 20 years, it's always been once an hour.
"I then hang up the phone with my mom. As the bus pulls to a stop I go to put on my mask... and this woman proceeds to tell me, 'that's right, be a good little slave'."
As noted by Charleton, Pasco County introduced a mandate in late June, making it compulsory for masks to be worn while indoors at a public business or county government facility.
The alleged comment is not captured in the footage shared by the mum-of-two, who says she immediately began recording after the initial insult.
In the video, Charleton can be heard addressing the woman: "You just told me to be a good little slave."
"You're wearing your mask like all the rest of the slaves out there," the woman responded.
"You're telling me, a woman of colour, [to] be a good little slave?" Charleton fired back.
The woman then implied that as she is Mexican and also a "woman of colour", she is allowed to refer to Charleton as a slave.
"I don't believe in skin tone because we're all humans and there's no such thing as a different race," the woman continued.
Charleton argued that the comment "should be offensive" to her, adding that she is not setting a good example to her children.
The footage then shows the bus pulling up and Charleton boarding. It's not clear whether the woman was allowed in the vehicle without a mask.
Charleton has since made her social media accounts private, but according to media who obtained the full post, she finished by saying she believes the woman "deliberately" chose the word 'slave' - regardless of its connotation.
Florida is one of the worst-affected states by the spread of COVID-19, with infections up by 1393 percent on average within the last seven days.
According to a press release on the Florida Department of Health's official website, health officials recorded 15,300 new positive cases on July 12.
There are currently 265,569 active cases in Florida, according to the latest data, with more than 269,800 confirmed cases state-wide. As of Sunday, there have been 4242 virus-related deaths.
