‘This ain’t your country:’ A Maryland woman was told to leave her machine by man at gym

A Maryland woman feels she became a victim of racism when she was working out at her local gym, Onelife Fitness, when an older man approached her and demanded to use the machine she was on. The confrontation with the stranger, as seen in the original video, became uncomfortable when she told him she wasn’t finished working out. He then started to make comments about her appearance and accent.

Samrawit, who posts on TikTok as @samrawit.hailu5, recorded some part of the disturbing encounter. According to her, the man told her she had five minutes to finish using the machine and then started criticizing her.

Things escalated when he threatened to call the police and yelled, “This is my [expletive] country! This ain’t your country!” She said, “Call, call the police. This is not just your country, It’s you, my country, too!” Samrawit replied to the threat.

She did not leave the machine

Samrawit told the man that she was American, but he continued to shoo her away and told her to “hurry up.” He then stood in front of the machine while she was still trying to work out, continuing to intimidate her. At one point, she started to feel uncomfortable and said, “You can’t stare me down while I’m working out.” She also asked him to “step away,” but he refused to listen.

The man picked up his belongings and started to walk away, telling Samrawit he was “going to have her removed” from the gym. While exiting, he came pretty close to the lady to which she said, “You’re getting too close to me.” The old man appeared to threaten her with, “Close, you haven’t seen close,” before walking away from the machine. She continued recording the interaction and later shared the video with her TikTok followers.

“I can’t believe this happened to me today at the gym. Yes I defended myself. While I understand I’m immigrant I’m also American. He had no right to bully me or intimidate me,“ Samrawit wrote in the caption. 

She later showed the video to the gym owner, and according to her, people who saw the video also got in contact with the gym by phone and email to complain about what happened. She later claimed that a gym manager contacted her with an update about the situation.

The manager reportedly told Samrawit that the man’s membership had been “terminated” because of the way he treated her.