Woman Charged for Calling Black Child the N-Word

Minnesota prosecutors filed misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges Tuesday against a woman accused of using a racist slur against a Black child at a playground—an incident the woman has since used to raise more than $800,000 after she appealed for help with relocating, the AP reports. "Defendant wrongfully and unlawfully engaged in offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous, or noisy conduct, or in offensive, obscene, or abusive language that would reasonably tend to arouse alarm, anger or resentment in others," the criminal complaint alleges. The woman was charged by summons with three counts of disorderly conduct. Each count carries a maximum potential penalty of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, though actual sentences in Minnesota tend to be lighter. Her arraignment was set for Oct. 29.

A social media video of the April incident, in which the woman admitted to using the slur, has garnered millions of views. It showed a man confronting her for using the slur toward the child. She then appeared to double down on the racist term and held up a middle finger to the man who challenged her. As of Tuesday, she had raised over $800,000 on the Christian fundraising platform GiveSendGo—including many donations that came in after the charges were announced—with a stated goal of $1 million. In her last update, in June, the woman claimed she was the victim of "silly misinformation."

"Big things are happening regarding our future," she wrote at the time. "Life-changing events are at play, and we have all of YOU to thank for that! I won't go into specifics, but just know that all is well on our end. ... Keep standing up for yourselves, and keep fighting for the First Amendment!" Initial reports said the young victim was 5 years old, but the criminal complaint said he was 8. The child's father told police his son is autistic, and due to his disability, he doesn't understand typical social boundaries and requires intensive parental supervision. At some point while at the park in Rochester, the child took an applesauce pouch from someone else's diaper bag, it said. The woman called the child the n-word while grabbing the pouch, which his father was also trying to retrieve.