LAKEWOOD, COLORADO: A Colorado woman, who was dubbed "poolside Karen" after launching a racist tirade against a Latino family, has claimed that she was not racist and the “deceptively edited” viral video did not tell the whole story. Speaking out for the first time, Blair Featherman revealed that she was provoked into making the vitriolic statements by a wannabe model scrambling for TikTok views.
Featherman received a lot of backlash after a viral TikTok, posted by hairdresser Jada Gallardo, showed her hurling racist slurs at a group of people relaxing by the pool at the Alta Green Mountain apartment block in Lakewood, Colorado. In the video, she was heard calling the family “trash” and “low class” for having a pool party around the Fourth of July. “I have been trying to stay silent and not comment about this, but there are things the video doesn’t show,” she told the Daily Mail, adding, “I’m not a racist. It was deceptively edited and put together to tell a narrative that isn’t true.”
'They were calling me white b***h’
The now-viral video, which has since garnered more than a million views, showed Featherman attempting to snatch the phone away before yelling that they should "go back down to Denver" before berating them for "not knowing what Hermes is." However, the art consultant, who claims to be an expert in Feng Shui, asserted that she was the one who got attacked after objecting to the group for going beyond the number of visitors that the residents of the complex were permitted to bring to the pool. She later admitted that it was wrong of her to fall for the trap and engage in a fight.
According to Featherman, things took a turn for the worse after the group's members started hurling racist expletives at her and filming her as she sat by the poolside. "They were calling me white b***h and white this and white that," she said, adding, "I was already having a bad day but this was too much." She added that when she grabbed the phone, she was physically assaulted by one woman, who clawed at her hair so violently that her artificial nails broke off. The alleged attack was not included in Gallardo’s video as Featherman claimed the footage was edited to continue from a different perspective several minutes later.
‘I couldn't think straight’
After the incident, Featherman could be seen in the video sitting on a beach chair, outraged and anxious as her boyfriend called for help and the agitated crowd surrounded her. "I couldn't believe what just happened, my heart was racing, and I was so full of adrenaline. I couldn't think straight," she recalled. She added that people around her thought she had pills in her hand but actually she was holding her broken nail. "I have heard that people are assuming they're pills that I am holding in my hand, but it's actually my nails that I'm showing her," she said. The Lakewood Police Department previously revealed that their officer investigated the scene but no criminal charges were filed.
