Costa del Sol: 'You're with your black partner and the Local Police only ask to see his ID, isn't that racism?'

A video shared on social media by a couple from Torre del Mar about the actions of officers on the town's promenade on Christmas Eve has been seen over one million times

Eugenio Cabezas

Torre del Mar

Wednesday, 10 January 2024, 21:22

Opciones para compartir

A video posted on social media by Macario and Celia, a couple from Torre del Mar, in which they share their recent experience of Local Police officers who asked Macario, who is black, for identification, has been watched over one million times.

The couple explain in the video that on Christmas Eve they went out for lunch in Torre del Mar with their two young children. As the family strolled along the town’s promenade, their eldest son, aged six, wanted to play on a nearby playground. A number of black people were selling items from large blankets; a typical scene on a sunny weekend or public holiday.

Macario was watching the eldest son and Celia was looking at some of the stalls with their youngest child. At that moment Local Police officers appeared and the vendors caught sight of them and ran away, which is a common occurrence when the police arrive, but no arrests were made. "They weren’t unpleasant about it, they let them go and didn’t catch anyone,” Celia explains in the video.

What do we call this?

However, the officers approached Macario and said (in Spanish): "Hey you, get out of here". They then asked him for identification. However, Celia goes on to say, “I asked them to ask me for identification too and they didn't listen to me". She believes that the officers’ actions were “racist”.

The couple uploaded the video to social media with the title 'What do we call this?', in which they recount the "unpleasant experience" they had on Christmas Eve. "I never imagined it would have so much impact, it has more than 1.2 million views on TikTok," said Celia, who is a health worker from Malaga. "The police kept telling me not to get involved, that they were doing their job, to check that he wasn't part of a mafia. But everyone in Torre del Mar knows Macario," she added in the video.

@celia_puravida @Macario no stress💯 @Macariosonko #amorspainsenegal #stopracism #parejamixta #love #torredelmar ♬ sonido original - Celia_puravida

The situation was resolved without any problem, but the couple wanted to open the debate by sharing their experience via social media. "In Spain we are still not evolving, without opening our minds and blaming those who are not to blame for anything. It seems to me that we are very backward, we are behind many countries. In other places like France or England it is totally normal to see people of many nationalities in the street. People still think that he is with me because he doesn't have papers", said Celia.

Thanks

Macario and Celia were grateful to passers-by who took an interest in the situation. "Many thanks to the people of Torre del Mar. Everyone who was there could see what was going on and reacted immediately,” Macario added in the video.

Macario is originally from Senegal and has been in Spain since 2006, when he arrived in a small boat to the Canary Islands. He is a dance teacher and works in the hotel industry. He became an internet sensation during the Cadiz Carnival in 2018, when he participated in a ‘chirigota’ (a satirical Spanish carnival song), 'No te quemes todavía' (don’t burn yourself yet). In 2019 he lost a younger sister who died when a small boat capsized in the Strait of Gibraltar.

Top 50

Reporta un error en esta noticia